Children of the Dark - Year 2
by cleotheo
Summary: The trio are back for their second year at Hogwarts, and this time they're armed with the knowledge of how to open the legendary Chamber of Secrets. Things are about to get dangerous at Hogwarts. Dark Hermione! Dark Harry! Part two of a seven part series.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N – Welcome back to Children of the Dark. Just a reminder that this is a Dark Harry and a Dark Hermione story. Also the paring will be Dramione, but they're still too young at this point for any romance. There will be the first stirrings in the third part, before things develop further in year 4.**

 **Updates will be the usual, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This part has 16 chapters in total, and I think there's a few more variations from canon. I hope people enjoy this part as much as they enjoyed year 1.**

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Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy spent the first few weeks of the summer holidays enjoying one another's company. For the entirety of their first year at Hogwarts, Hermione and Harry had been forced to hide their friendship with Draco as they played the parts of good little Gryffindors. However, now they were free of Hogwarts for the summer they were able to be themselves and spend time with their best friend. They were also able to spend time with Severus Snape, who was Harry's father and Hermione's brother. Apart from the Malfoys, no-one else knew of Severus's connection to the two Gryffindors, and it was going to remain a secret until the time was right for the truth to emerge.

Half the summer was over, before attention really turned to the trio's second year at Hogwarts. For weeks the threesome had been pretty much left to their own devices, but one afternoon, Hermione's father, the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, had gathered everyone together. Everyone included the three twelve year olds, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Severus and Hermione's mother, Beth.

As the group gathered they all knew the time had come to discuss what was going to happen over the next few months. The previous year they'd concocted an elaborate plan to ensure that Harry and Hermione were totally trusted by the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. As leader of the group opposing Voldemort and his followers, it was imperative that Harry and Hermione gained his trust for later on when things got more heated. Luckily their plan had been a success and Dumbledore wouldn't dream of questioning Harry and Hermione's loyalties to him.

"So what are we going to do this year?" Hermione asked, eager to find out what their second year would entail.

"Patience Hermione," Voldemort chuckled. "First of all, I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you about the Chamber of Secrets."

"Never heard of it," Hermione said with a sigh. She hated not knowing things before others and was a bit peeved that she didn't at least have a clue what her father was talking about.

"I have," Draco said, earning himself an unimpressed glare from his female best friend. "The Chamber of Secrets is hidden somewhere in Hogwarts."

"Very good Draco," Voldemort said, smiling at the young blond wizard. "And I happen to know exactly where it's hidden."

"But what is the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked.

"The chamber was created by Salazar Slytherin, way back when the school was built," Voldemort explained. "In the chamber lived a creature, a creature that would help him rid the school of those unworthy of being there. However, before he'd managed to complete his task of ridding Hogwarts of muggleborns, he was driven out of the school by Godric Gryffindor and the others. They others all knew that the chamber existed, but they couldn't find the entrance. Only an heir of Salazar himself could open the chamber and finish what he'd started."

"But we're heirs of Salazar Slytherin," Hermione gasped. Her father had long ago told her the story of his mother, Merope Gaunt, and how her family had been descended from the great wizard, Salazar Slytherin.

"We are," Voldemort confirmed, giving Hermione a proud smile. "And when I was in school, I found the chamber and opened it. I released the creature and it set about cleansing the school."

"But it can't have worked," Harry said with a confused frown. "There's still muggleborns allowed in school."

"Unfortunately, I had to close the chamber again," Voldemort said with a disappointed sigh. "A muggleborn was killed, and while part of the school rejoiced, others did not. I soon found the school was in danger of being closed, and I couldn't allow that to happen. I needed Hogwarts, even a Hogwarts with muggleborns roaming the corridors."

"What did you do?" Hermione asked eagerly.

"I set another student up," Voldemort answered with a wicked smirk. "I believe you know him, Rubeus Hagrid."

"Hagrid?" Harry and Hermione cried together.

"That oaf went to school?" Draco questioned with a sneer. "I didn't think he could do magic."

"He can, he just does it in secret," Harry replied. "When I first met him, he told me not to tell anyone he was doing magic as he wasn't allowed."

"That's because his wand was snapped when he was expelled," Voldemort explained. "As you know, he's got a fondness for magical creatures. Well, I knew he was hiding one in school and I led the Professors to both him and the creature. Unfortunately the creature escaped, but Hagrid was accused of being behind the attacks and expelled. Dumbledore allowed him to stay on as a trainee groundskeeper as he felt sorry for him. Of course Dumbledore never believed that it was Hagrid that had opened the chamber, but once he was caught and expelled the attacks stopped and Dumbledore could never find any proof that he was innocent."

"Wow, that's a cool story," Harry said with a low whistle. "But what does it have to do with us?"

"You three are going to open the chamber again," Voldemort answered. Immediately Hermione, Harry and Draco started shooting questions at him, but he silenced them by raising his hand. "Let me finish, and then you can ask questions."

Voldemort then proceeded to tell the trio exactly where the entrance of the chamber was located and how to open it. He then told them all about the creature in the chamber, and how it would obey Harry and Hermione as the heirs of Slytherin. Of course, the trio were all wondering how they would open a chamber using a language they didn't speak, but Voldemort had a solution brewing.

When Voldemort snapped his fingers, everyone in the room was shocked when the door to the front room slowly opened and a large snake slithered its way over to where Voldemort was sitting. Harry, Hermione and Draco, who'd all been sitting on the floor, jumped up at the sight of the snake and backed away from the giant reptile. Lucius, Narcissa and Severus were all visibly uncomfortable with the sight of the large snake, but Beth barely batted an eyelid as her husband stroked his new pet.

"Meet Nagini," Voldemort said. "Nagini, say hello."

Slowly the snake turned round and let out a low hiss. Hermione, Harry and Severus all looked at the snake in surprise as they clearly heard it saying hello. However, the Malfoys had only heard hissing.

"It speaks," Hermione whispered.

"Say hello back to her," Voldemort urged his daughter. "Don't worry, she won't bite."

"Hello Nagini," Hermione said, not realising the words had left her lips in a series of hissing sounds.

"How are you doing that?" Draco asked, looking at Hermione in shock. "Where did you learn to speak Parseltongue?"

"She didn't," Voldemort answered. "Salazar Slytherin could speak it, and it was passed down through the family line. I didn't discover I could communicate with snakes until I started to research the chamber. My guess is the ability has lain dormant in Hermione, Severus and Harry because they've never had cause to talk to a snake before."

"Why do you need me then?" Draco asked quietly. "Harry and Hermione can open the chamber, they don't need me. I'll not be any use to them."

"On the contrary, you're going to be invaluable Draco," Voldemort said. "Come here."

Sidestepping the giant snake, who was still sitting in front of Harry and Hermione, Draco made his way over to the Dark Lord. When he reached Voldemort, the older wizard took hold of his hand and ordered him to close his eyes. Draco did as he was told, and seconds later he let out a loud gasp as he felt the Dark Lord entering his mind. In his head, Draco heard Voldemort telling him to relax, and he tried his hardest not to be too panicked. However, it wasn't easy to relax when you could feel someone else's presence in your head. Finally he was relaxed enough so that Voldemort could leave a tiny portion of his own memories inside Draco's head.

"Nagini," Voldemort called as he let go of Draco's hand. "Come and say hello to Draco."

When the snake slithered over to him, Draco was amazed when he clearly understood what the snake was saying to him. With a bit of urging from Voldemort, he tried talking to Nagini himself and Hermione's proud smile told him that he'd spoken Parseltongue.

"How?" He asked, turning back to the Dark Lord.

"I've given you a few of my memories, specifically my memories regarding Parseltongue," Voldemort explained. "I doubt you'll be as fluent as Harry or Hermione, but you should have the basic skills to help them."

"You still haven't explained what exactly we're going to do," Hermione said to her father.

"You're going to open the chamber, and instruct the creature to have some fun. As well as killing, the creature has the ability to petrify its victims, I suggest you start by petrifying a few people and build up to the main event," Voldemort said. "Between the three of you, you can ensure that none of you come under any suspicion. How you work it, is up to you, but enjoy yourselves and have fun."

"And what happens if they threaten to shut the school?" Lucius questioned. "As a governor, I can say that I seriously doubt that the rest of the committee will sit back as attacks are carried out on the students."

"I'm hoping your position as a governor might help us," Voldemort said. "We'll be able to keep abreast of the situation and get a message to the children if they need to end things."

"But we'll still need a scapegoat," Severus pointed out. "Someone will have to take the fall for opening the chamber."

"And the perfect person is just sitting waiting to take the blame," Voldemort replied with a smirk. "Hagrid escaped last time because he was still underage and Dumbledore vouched for him. He won't be able to defend him a second time."

"Blame will automatically fall on Hagrid," Hermione agreed. "Providing that someone other than Dumbledore remembers that he took the blame the last time the chamber was opened. Dumbledore won't hand Hagrid over to the authorities, they'd have to be led to him."

"Leave that to me," Lucius said. "I can make sure attention is shone in the right places when the investigation gets underway."

"So when Hagrid's arrested, we close the chamber?" Hermione checked.

"Let's wait and see," Voldemort replied. "The chamber will need closing before the school is shut down, but we want to do as much damage as possible. We may even be able to get rid of Dumbledore as headmaster before the end of the year."

"And what if anything goes wrong and we struggle to get the chamber opened?" Harry asked.

"Then this might help," Voldemort said. Pulling out a deep blue book from his pocket he handed it to his grandson.

Harry flicked through the book with a frown. "It's empty."

"It's a diary," Voldemort explained. "Specifically, it's my diary from the year I opened the chamber. The diary is one of my Horcruxes, and a teenage version of myself resides in the pages. If you write in the book, my teenage self will be able to reply. It should help you if you get stuck, but if not, you can always write home."

"Should I really take this to school?" Harry frowned. "What if something happens to it?"

"It doesn't matter," Voldemort answered with a shrug. "It's one Horcrux, I have plenty more. Take it, Harry, and if you need it, use it. If need be, destroy it even. Just use it to help you with the chamber."

"Thank you," Harry said, gently holding onto the book. He couldn't wait to use the book to find out more about his grandfather's life at Hogwarts.

"So we're all clear of what's going to happen?" Voldemort checked.

"Yes," The trio chorused together.

"The Chamber of Secrets will be opened, and chaos will ensue," Hermione said with a wicked smirk. "I can't wait to get back to school."

Harry and Draco nodded in agreement with Hermione. It looked like their second year at Hogwarts was going to be just as eventful as their first.


	2. Chapter 2

Throughout the holidays, Harry and Hermione had received letters from Ron and had written back to the redhead numerous times. In almost all of Ron's letters to Harry, he'd asked him to visit his family home, The Burrow. Occasionally he mentioned meeting up in Hermione's letters, but she never got an actual invite to his house. Draco reckoned that it was because Ron preferred Harry and didn't really like Hermione, and both Harry and Hermione thought he could be right. Ron had always been more interested in Harry, and if it hadn't been for the fact that Hermione was already with Harry when Ron met him, she doubted the redhead would have paid her the slightest bit of attention.

All holidays, Harry had managed to put Ron off meeting up, but as the start of term approached, Beth suggested that they met up with Ron in Diagon Alley. Knowing that it would keep up their act perfectly, Harry and Hermione arranged to meet up with Ron to shop for their school supplies. When Harry wrote to Ron, he said he'd already arranged it with Hermione for them all to do their shopping together, all they needed to know was when the Weasleys were going to be in Diagon Alley.

On the day in question, Beth made sure that Harry and Hermione were at the Leaky Cauldron before the time they were due to meet the Weasleys. It had already been decided that she wouldn't stick around and would pick them up at the end of the day. It had also been decided that Lucius and Narcissa would take Draco to get his stuff on the same day. They didn't really think Harry and Hermione would need them, but both Voldemort and Severus had insisted that help was on hand in case they needed it.

"Are you ready for another year of playing the hero?" Hermione asked Harry as they waited for the Weasleys to show up.

"I'm so looking forward to it," Harry muttered sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

"You've been spending too much time with Draco," Hermione said with a laugh. "You're starting to sound just like him."

"It could be worse, I could be starting to sound like Ron," Harry joked.

"Speaking of which, here he comes," Hermione said, spotting the family of redheads appearing in some nearby fireplaces.

Plastering on welcoming smiles, Harry and Hermione stood up as the Weasleys approached. Both of Ron's parents, Molly and Arthur, were accompanying the children, and they looked to have the entire family with them, bar the oldest two boys who had already left school. Ron quickly greeted his friends, and introduced them to his parents. Harry had briefly met Molly the previous year, but neither he nor Hermione had met Arthur.

"It's very nice to meet you, sir," Harry said as he shook Arthur's hand.

"The pleasure is all mine, Harry," Arthur replied with a beaming grin. "And of course, it's lovely to meet you too, Hermione," He added, turning and smiling at the small brunette witch beside Harry.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr Weasley," Hermione returned politely.

"Please, call me Arthur," Arthur insisted.

Once the introductions to Ron's parents were over, Ron introduced Harry and Hermione to his younger sister, Ginny. The second Harry said hello to her, Ginny giggled giddily and turned bright red. Finally she managed to muster a reply, as Ron glared at her and shook his head at her actions.

"We really should get going," Molly called, interrupting the greetings. "We've got a lot to buy."

"Yeah, have you seen all the new Defence books," Ron said with a grimace. "All by Gilderoy Lockhart. I bet we've got a witch with a big crush on him."

"Speaking of crushes, I think someone has one on you," Hermione whispered to Harry, gesturing to where Ginny kept sneaking looks at him through her curtain of long, red hair.

"But she doesn't even know me," Harry protested. "She can't have a crush on me."

"Of course she can have a crush on Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived," Hermione retorted. "She's probably fancied you from the moment she heard about you."

"Idiot," Harry spat, and Hermione knew he was referring to Ginny, not her.

"I think we'll start with Gringotts," Molly announced as the group made its way out of the dingy pub and into the bright sunshine of Diagon Alley.

"Hermione, Harry, do you not have any adults with you?" Arthur questioned, suddenly realising his sons friends were alone.

"My Uncle Vernon dropped me off on his way to work," Harry replied. "He'll pick me up tonight."

"My Mum did the same," Hermione added. "To be honest, she was relieved that I was meeting you lot and she didn't have to come shopping with me. She found it all a bit overwhelming last year."

"Ah yes, your parents are muggles," Arthur gasped. "You must tell me all about them, I just love muggles."

Hermione smiled politely at Arthur, and promised to answer his questions. Hopefully he wouldn't ask too many complicated questions and the information she'd learnt before her first year would satisfy his curiosity. Luckily for Hermione, they reached Gringotts before Arthur could ask too many questions. Once everyone was sorted, the group headed back out into Diagon Alley and their shopping trip began.

Since Ginny was just starting school, she needed several things that the others didn't so Molly took her to get sorted while the others visited the other shops they needed to get supplies from. As they wandered around the shops, Percy helped Arthur keep the twins and the trio in check, causing Ron to spend the entire time complaining about his brother.

"I swear, he thinks he's Head Boy already," Ron muttered as they looked at some quills and parchment.

"What makes him think he'd going to be Head Boy?" Harry asked with a frown. It seemed rather presumptuous of Percy to assume he was going to be Head Boy the following year.

"He's just hoping," Ron replied. "But knowing my luck, he'll get the position. Then it's something else I've got to live up to. If Percy makes Head Boy, that makes two of my brothers have been Head Boy, and the others have all played quidditch. I just can't compare."

Harry patted Ron sympathetically on the shoulder, not knowing what to say to him. He'd learnt the previous year that Ron had a serious inferiority complex when it came to his siblings. In Ron's mind, he just couldn't compete with what his brothers had achieved, and he even felt as though Ginny outshone him as the only girl in the family. Harry wasn't sure if Ron was right in his assumptions that he didn't measure up, but whenever the redhead raised the subject it made him feel uncomfortable as he never knew what to say.

"Come on you three," Arthur called from the doorway of the shop. "We're heading over to Flourish and Blotts, and it looks like there's something going on over there."

"What can be going on at a bookshop?" Ron grumbled as they paid for their purchases and exited the shop.

When they entered the small shop, the answer was waiting for them. Gilderoy Lockhart was holding a book signing, and the shop was swamped with witches swooning over him. As Harry and Hermione pushed through the crowds with the Weasleys, Hermione glanced up and spotted Draco standing leaning over one of the railings on the upper floor. He looked distinctly unimpressed with the mayhem below him, and Hermione couldn't help but chuckle slightly at his bored expression. Not wanting to be caught staring at someone she was supposed to detest, Hermione hurriedly lowered her eyes and continued to follow the Weasleys to where Molly and Ginny were waiting in line to have their books signed.

"Isn't this great," Molly gushed as she smoothed down her hair. "I've always wanted to meet Gilderoy Lockhart."

"Yeah, he's so impressive," Ron grumbled.

"Stop that Ron," Molly scolded. "Now come here and I'll sort your books out."

"Speaking of books, I better go and pick mine up," Hermione said. The books in Molly's hand were all second hand as it was all the Weasleys could afford, but both Harry and Hermione could afford brand new books.

"I'll come with you," Harry called, and before anyone could stop them the pair had darted off into the crowds.

"Damn, we have to get a lot of this crap," Harry muttered as they checked the list of books they needed and found the vast majority of them were all written by Gilderoy Lockhart. "Do we really need this many books for one lesson?"

"Of course not," A voice behind them said and turning around, Harry and Hermione found Draco leaning up against a bookshelf. "But Lockhart loves himself, everyone knows that."

"What does Lockhart loving himself have to do with anything?" Harry asked with a frown as he double checked they were alone and no-one was witnessing their conversation.

"Haven't your heard? He's our new Defence Professor," Draco replied. "He was announcing it earlier."

"We've just arrived," Hermione explained. "But I guess he has to be better than Quirrell. At least he knows what he's talking about, according to his books, he's done all sorts."

"According to Father, he's a peeping tom," Draco replied with a chuckle. "You missed some fun earlier. I thought Father was going to punch Lockhart."

"Why?" Harry asked. "What did he do?"

"He was flirting with Mother," Draco said. "And according to Father, when she bent down to pick up her books, Lockhart was trying to get a look down her dress."

Harry and Hermione both laughed at Draco's story, wishing they had been around to witness the incident for themselves. However, their laughter soon stopped when Harry spotted Ron approaching. Quickly, the trio made it look as though they were sniping at one another and Ron was none the wiser when he approached.

"What's going on?" He demanded, eyeing Draco up suspiciously.

"Nothing," Harry answered. "Malfoy's just being his usual annoying self."

"It's a talent," Draco said with a smirk.

"No-one wants you here Malfoy, so bugger off," Ron spat.

"It's public space, Weasley, I can be here if I want," Draco retorted, glaring at the redhead.

"What's all the fuss?" Arthur suddenly called as he came hurrying over to the four twelve year olds.

"No fuss, Malfoy's just leaving," Ron said.

"I am not leaving," Draco insisted. "I'm waiting for my father."

"You can wait somewhere else," Arthur snapped.

For the first time since they met him, Harry and Hermione saw a different side to Arthur as he glared unhappily at Draco. All morning he'd been extremely friendly towards everyone they met, but the second he'd came into contact with Draco, his attitude had taken a U-turn. Suddenly, Harry and Hermione could see where Ron's hatred of Malfoys came from. It was no wonder he'd hated Draco on sight if his father's actions were anything to go on.

"I do hope you're not threating my son, Arthur," A cold voice drawled from behind the Weasley patriarch.

"Of course not, Lucius," Arthur replied as he turned to face his nemesis. "I was merely suggesting, he wait for you elsewhere. We don't want any trouble."

Lucius turned to Draco and raised a pale eyebrow at his son. "Are you causing trouble, Draco?"

"Would I?" Draco asked innocently as he smirked up at his father.

"See, there's no trouble here, Arthur," Lucius replied smoothly. "I would suggest you take your brood and move along. Some of us have things to do."

"And some of us have no intention of being bullied," Arthur retorted.

"I would look in the mirror before you throw accusations around," Lucius hissed, taking a threatening step towards Arthur. "You were the one threatening a twelve year old boy."

"It wasn't a threat, it was a suggestion," Arthur replied with a snarl.

"Well, I'm just suggesting you take your brats and move along," Lucius replied with a dangerous looking smile. "And while you're at it, take the Potter kid and the muggleborn. I don't want my son associating with the wrong type of people."

"I know what you mean," Arthur replied, glaring at Lucius. "I don't want my children mixing with the wrong sort either, and from where I'm standing the wrong sort is right opposite us."

Instead of responding, Lucius merely chuckled slightly and offered Arthur another smirk. Hermione and Harry knew that Lucius found it very amusing that Arthur was worried about keeping his children away from the wrong sort of people, when they were already friends with the daughter and grandson of the Dark Lord.

"Come along kids," Arthur said, urging Ron, Harry and Hermione to return to the others. "Let's pay for our books, and then we'll go and get some lunch."

Shooting Lucius and Draco one final look, Harry and Hermione trailed after the Arthur as they headed to pay for their books. Of course, Lucius and Draco were the main topic of conversation over lunch as Arthur and Ron filled the rest of the family in on the altercation with the two blond wizards. However, by the time the shopping trip continued after eating, the topic of conversation had changed and the Malfoys weren't spoken about for the rest of the day.


	3. Chapter 3

The remainder of the holidays whizzed past and before they knew it, was time for the trio to go back to school and for Harry and Hermione to once again spend the year acting like the innocent little Gryffindors they weren't. When the morning of September the first rolled round, Beth dropped Harry off at the station, before she and Hermione continued on through the muggle entrance. Since he knew how to get onto the platform, Harry went straight ahead and headed to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. He had no idea if the Weasleys would show up the muggle way, but he didn't see the need to wait around for them since he knew what he was doing.

As it turned out, Harry had only been on the platform a few minutes when he heard Ron calling for him. Looking around, he found Ron waving to him as he stood with the rest of his family. Wondering where Hermione had gotten to, Harry made his way over to the family of redheads.

"Hi Ron," Harry greeted. "Hello Mr and Mrs Weasley."

"Hello Harry dear," Molly replied with a smile. "And we've told you before, just call us Molly and Arthur."

Harry smiled and nodded, but he made no move to call the two adults by their first names. He still felt as though he barely knew them, and he wasn't entirely comfortable with using their first names.

"Have you seen Hermione?" He asked Ron, looking around for any sign of her or Beth. Harry couldn't see either of the two witches, but he did spot Draco saying goodbye to his parents. Wistfully wishing he could be across the station with the Malfoys, Harry returned his attention to Ron who was shaking his head.

"She'll be here somewhere," Ron said, seemingly unbothered by Hermione's absence.

"Maybe we should get on the train and see if we can find her," Harry suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea," Ron said, before turning back to his parents who were fussing over Ginny. Ginny however, seemed oblivious to her parents fussing, she was too busy watching Harry out of the corner of her eye. "We're heading onto the train, Mum. See you later."

"Not so fast," Molly called, stopping Ron as he turned towards the train. "Take your sister with you, and make sure you look after her."

"I'm sure Ginny can look after herself," Ron protested. "Besides, you didn't have anyone looking after me last year."

"I asked Percy and the twins, but it would seem they didn't listen to me," Molly replied. "I do not want you to do the same thing, Ron. Just keep an eye on your sister."

"Fine." Ron let out a dramatic sigh as he picked up his trunk and slung his backpack over his shoulder. "Come on, Gin."

Harry inwardly groaned as he set off towards the train with the two redheads following him. Over the past year, he'd learnt to get along pretty well with Ron and actually didn't mind spending time with him. Of course he was very careful not to let himself get too attached to him as their friendship had a time limit and when the time came for things to get serious, they would find themselves on opposing sides of the war. Ginny, however, was a different matter. The trip to Diagon Alley had been bad enough, and he could do without having her gazing lovingly at him throughout the long journey up to Hogwarts.

"Hey look, there's Hermione," Ron called as they dragged their trunks onto the train.

Looking down the corridor, Harry spotted their friend standing in the doorway of a compartment. When she saw them, Hermione gave them a wave and they made their way down the corridor towards her. Entering the compartment, they stowed their trunks above the seats. By the time they'd done that, the train was getting ready to depart, so they hurried back into the corridor to wave goodbye to their families.

"Ah look, another Weasley," A voice called from the compartment beside the one the Gryffindors had settled in.

Turning around the Gryffindor trio and Ginny spotted Draco emerging from the compartment, with his friends behind him.

"And she's a girl," Blaise remarked in surprise.

"A Weaselette," Theo joked.

"Do not call my sister names," Ron warned, whipping out his wand.

"Ron, just leave it," Ginny said quietly.

"Yeah, they're not worth it," Harry added, pulling Ron back to the window. "Let's just say goodbye and get settled."

"Why did you have to pick the compartment next to theirs?" Ron grumbled to Hermione as the Slytherins leant out of the window next to them to say their own goodbyes.

"I'm sorry I didn't check the nearby compartments to see who was in them," Hermione muttered sarcastically. "I just grabbed an empty compartment. Do you know how hard they are to find?"

"Yeah," Ron replied, remembering the hassle he'd had the previous year to find somewhere to sit. Luckily he'd come across Harry and Hermione, and a friendship had been born.

Once the train had pulled out of the station, the group turned to head back to their compartment. Unfortunately as they turned round so did the Slytherins, and Ginny walked straight into the back of Theo.

"Watch where you're going, Weaselette," Theo snarled. "I don't want your filthy hands on me."

"Don't talk to her like that," Ron seethed. "It was an accident."

"I never heard her say sorry," Draco remarked from where he was standing just inside the Slytherin compartment.

"Sorry," Ginny whispered.

"She's so timid," Blaise said with a laugh as he and Theo also retreated into the compartment.

"She's going to be so much fun to play with," Theo said with an evil smirk aimed in Ron's direction.

Ron snarled at Theo, and pulling out his wand yet again, he charged at the Slytherin. Swiftly, Theo yanked on the compartment door and slid it shut. Unfortunately for Ron, his wand got caught between the sliding door and the doorframe. With a sickening crack, the top of his wand snapped, with only the core keeping the pieces of wood from separating completely.

"My wand," Ron cried in panic.

Hermione slid open the door enough to release Ron's wand, and as she did so they could all hear the Slytherins laughter. Ignoring the Slytherins amusement, the Gryffindors made their way back into their compartment. Settling down on one of the benches, Ron looked dejectedly down at his snapped wand. He had enough trouble with magic, without having a broken wand to contend with.

"What do I do now?" He whispered, almost to himself.

"Let me have a look," Hermione offered kindly.

Gently placing Ron's wand on the chair beside her, she drew out her own wand and tried to fix it with a simple repair charm. The wand twitched at her spell, but refused to fuse itself together. Even though her magical knowledge was fairly advanced, Hermione didn't know a spell that could help fix a wand so she just tried every single repairing spell she could think of. However, the two pieces of wood just didn't want to merge back together.

"Maybe we can try fixing the wand using something physical," Harry suggested when Hermione's efforts proved fruitless.

"Like what?" Ron whispered miserably. "It's broke Harry, and now I'll not be able to do any magic at all."

"Don't give up hope, Ron," Harry urged. "I'm sure someone can help when we get to Hogwarts."

"Until then, how about we try spell-o-tape," Ginny said. "I think I've got some in my bag."

Rummaging in her bag, Ginny produced a roll of spell-o-tape. Taking the tape from Ginny, Hermione managed to at least make a quick repair job on Ron's wand. Ron tried a few simple spells, and though the results were patchy, it was all they could do until they got up to school. Sighing sadly, Ron tucked his wand away for the rest of the journey.

"You know Gin, you don't have to stick around all journey," Ron remarked as the drama with his wand was put to one side and he settled down to catch up with Harry and Hermione.

"But I don't know anyone else," Ginny protested. "I doubt Percy or the twins will want to sit with me."

"How about that odd girl from over the hill?" Ron questioned. "She's your age, isn't she?"

"Yeah, Luna's my age," Ginny answered. Luna Lovegood and her father, Xeno, lived fairly close to The Burrow and Molly often encouraged them to spend time together.

"So go and find her," Ron said. "Go and make some friends, Gin."

With a snarl at her brother, Ginny grabbed her bag and stormed out of the compartment. Ron shrugged his shoulders at Ginny's departure, before turning to his friends and asking about their summer. Hermione chatted with Harry and Ron for a while, before she grabbed her bag and pulled out a book to read. As usual she'd already glanced through her school books and read a few of them, but there was still a few she'd yet to touch since defence required so many books this year.

Just over an hour later, she threw her book down in disgust. She'd never read such rubbish, and she didn't see how they could learn anything from the contents of the book. Fishing out another defence book, she skimmed through it and found it was very similar. Books that should be about dark arts and creatures, were all about the author, Gilderoy Lockhart.

"What's wrong with you?" Harry asked, noticing Hermione's frustration.

"These books are pathetic," Hermione complained. "I take it back. We're not going to have a good Professor this year. If anything, Lockhart could be worse than Quirrell. He's a self-absorbed idiot, and he's going to be a lousy teacher."

"How do you know Lockhart is the new Defence Professor?" Ron asked with a frown.

"He announced it at the book signing before we arrived," Hermione replied. "Didn't you read about it in the Daily Prophet?"

"I don't read the papers," Ron replied with a shrug.

"Well I do," Hermione answered. "And it was splashed all over the Daily Prophet last week."

"So what makes you think he's going to be rubbish?" Harry asked. "I thought he'd done all sorts of things."

"Supposedly he has," Hermione answered. "But his books are all self-publicising nonsense. The main topic in all the books are Lockhart himself. I don't see how we're going to learn anything from these books. Let's just hope he's better in person."

"I wouldn't count on that," Harry muttered. "He seemed pretty self-absorbed at the book signing. He was like a pompous peacock strutting about showing off."

Hermione couldn't help but laugh at Harry's remarks about Lockhart. The day they'd gone to Diagon Alley, they'd had dinner with the Malfoys and when Lucius had been complaining about Lockhart, he'd referred to him as a pompous peacock, among other more colourful names.

"Pompous peacock, I like it," Ron laughed.

"I thought it was rather good," Harry said with a laugh of his own, wondering what Ron would think if he knew the phrase came from Lucius Malfoy.

Putting her books away, Hermione settled down to spend the rest of the journey chatting with Harry and Ron. They talked a while about Lockhart, before wondering what their other lessons would be like. The majority of their previous year had been about learning the basics of various lessons, but now they were second years, their work load would undoubtedly be harder and they would start learning more advanced magic. Of course, the conversation inevitably turned to quidditch, and Hermione tuned the boys out. Luckily they didn't have long to go before they were heading towards Hogwarts.

"I'm going to go and get my robes on," Hermione said. "I'll be back shortly."

By the time Hermione had visited the toilets, changed and returned to where her friends were waiting, Ginny had also re-joined them. The redhead's nerves were clear for everyone to see and Ron was doing his best to convince his little sister that everything would be fine as the train pulled into Hogsmeade station.

"Don't worry Gin, you'll be in Gryffindor," Ron reassured his sister as they parted ways on the platform.

"What now?" Harry asked with a frown. Like the previous year, Hagrid was gathering the first years and the older students were heading out of the gates at the opposite end of the platform.

"Follow everyone else," Hermione said.

The trio followed the rest of the students, which most of the second years also seemed to be doing. After exiting the train station, they found themselves waiting in a line just outside of the station. In the distance they could see black carriages, which would presumably carry the students up to Hogsmeade.

"Whoa," Ron gasped in awe as the group edged closer to the front of the queue. They could now see the carriages clearly, and could see that they seemed to be moving of their own accord. "They're moving by themselves."

"We do attend a magical school," Hermione replied with an unconcerned shrug. "Magical carriages to take us up to the school really isn't that surprising."

"I guess not," Ron conceded. "But no-one's ever mentioned these to me before."

"Have you never asked your brothers how they got up to school from the train station?" Hermione asked.

"No," Ron admitted. "To be honest, until last year I hadn't realised there was a train station down in the village. I sort of assumed the train stopped directly at Hogwarts."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron, and bit her tongue to stop herself from saying something sarcastic. Luckily they reached the front of the queue and hopped into a carriage with a couple of Ravenclaws from their year. One short journey later they were dropped off at the front doors, where they found Professor Flitwick greeting the students. Severus was also standing at the doors, but he wasn't greeting people, he was just hurrying them along.

"Fancy having Snape on welcoming duty," Ron grumbled as the trio passed the two Professors in the doorway and entered the school. "He's about as welcoming as an iceberg."

Ignoring Ron's dig at Severus, Hermione and Harry headed on into the Great Hall. Taking seats at the Gryffindor table, they chatted to the other Gryffindors as they waited for everyone to arrive and settle down. Finally, everyone was settled and McGonagall entered with the first years.

"Don't they look scared," Ron whispered in amusement as the nervous first years passed where they were sitting.

"You were just as nervous last year," Hermione said, throwing Ron an unimpressed glare. He was already starting to act superior now he was no longer a first year, and she dreaded to think what he would be like by the time they reached the end of the years at Hogwarts.

The sorting ran perfectly and Hermione, Harry and Ron clapped and cheered whenever they got someone new in their house. As Ron predicted, Ginny was sorted into Gryffindor and she settled down a few seats down from where the trio was sitting. Hermione noticed her occasionally stealing looks at Harry, but she also noticed that she was coming out of her shell a bit. So far, Ginny had been quiet and nervous, but watching her sitting chatting with another couple of girls, Hermione didn't think her nerves would last long. She was betting that in a few weeks, Ginny would be just as loud and boisterous as the other Weasleys.

"So, we're back," Harry whispered to Hermione as they ate. He wasn't worried about anyone overhearing them as the Great Hall was as loud as he'd ever heard it with people catching up with their friends. "When do we begin?"

"Let's get settled in," Hermione replied. "We'll have a few weeks relaxation before the fun begins."


	4. Chapter 4

Leading the way into the first Defence against the Dark Arts class of the year, Draco settled himself near the back of the classroom. His friends all found seats roundabout him, with Blaise joining him at his table. Draco always liked to sit near the back of the class as it offered the best viewpoint of the entire lesson. Sitting at the back, he was unlikely to miss anything.

"Trust the Gryffindors to sit at the front," Blaise muttered as Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the classroom and immediately settled in the front desks. "They're such goody two shoes. Do you think they even know have to have fun?"

"I'm sure even Gryffindors know how to have fun," Draco replied.

"I'm really not so sure," Blaise replied with an amused shake of his head as he watched Hermione get her things out and line them neatly along her desk.

Draco couldn't help but chuckle as he also watched Hermione getting sorted for the lesson. Sometimes it was hard to believe that the hard working studious girl he saw in school was his best friend. At home Hermione was still bossy and liked things done right, but she was also a lot of fun and at times quite wicked. However, in school she'd perfected the art of being a bookish know-it-all.

Draco soon forgot about watching Hermione as the door to the adjoining office swung open and Lockhart made his dramatic appearance. The office leading to the Defence Professors office was located up a short flight of stairs, and Lockhart paused at the top of the stairs to introduce himself. As he flashed his award winning smile, Draco grimaced as several of the girls in the class sighed longingly and gazed adoringly at the new Professor. Sitting a few tables over, Daphne and Pansy seemed entranced with the new Professor and they couldn't keep their eyes off him as he swept down into the classroom.

"We'll start with a little quiz," Lockhart announced with a grin. "I'm sure you were all super eager to read my books. So let's see what you've remembered."

"I haven't read the books," Blaise whined as Lockhart magically distributed the short quiz.

Picking up his quiz and glancing at the questions, Draco let out a quite groan. "From the looks of this quiz, that's a good thing. All these questions are about Lockhart himself."

"Up himself git," Blaise mumbled as he looked over the quiz.

"You have fifteen minutes, then we'll go over the answers," Lockhart announced as he returned to his desk where there was a covered cage sitting on the desktop.

"I couldn't get these answers in fifteen years," Draco snorted. After double checking there wasn't any questions about the actual subject they were supposed to be studying, he placed his quill on the desk and sat back to relax.

"Are you not at least going to try?" Blaise asked as he just guessed the answers to the quiz.

"Hell no," Draco replied. "I have no interest in what Lockhart's favourite colour is, or how many times he's won Witch Weekly's most stunning smile or whatever crap it is."

While Blaise went back to scribbling down made up answers, Draco checked out what the other students were doing. Most of the girls seemed to be coping with the quiz fairly easily, and the boys were either ignoring it like Draco or making stuff up like Blaise. Turning his attention to the front of the room, Draco watched Harry and Hermione having a whispered conversation. Neither of them looked impressed with the quiz they had to take and Draco could only imagine what the pair had to say about Lockhart and his approach to teaching.

Finally Lockhart announced time was up and he ran over the answers with the class. The only people to get any questions right were the girls in the class. Apart from Hermione, who hadn't looked to have filled in an answer.

"Are these marks going to count towards our grades?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"Oh no, it was just a bit of fun," Lockhart replied, flashing Hermione a smile.

Draco was sure the smile would have turned most other girls into gibbering wrecks, but Hermione merely looked at Lockhart in disdain. It would appear the charming new Professor wasn't impressing the Dark Lord's daughter in the slightest.

"Now let's get on with the lesson," Lockhart announced. "In this class you will face your worst fears, starting with these."

With a flourish, Lockhart whipped off the cover on the cage revealing a handful of tiny blue creatures flying around inside the metal bars.

"Cornish Pixies," Seamus Finnegan scoffed. "How boring."

"Freshly caught Cornish Pixies," Lockhart corrected. "And I warn you, they may bite."

"Bite," Ron squealed in panic as Lockhart swung open the cage and the pixies flew into the room.

Immediately the pixies began to dive-bomb the students and nip at them. Draco immediately pulled a thick book from his backpack and started swatting at the pixies when they came too close to him. The other Slytherins followed Draco's lead and before long the pixies were being swatted away from the Slytherins via books, magazines and pieces of parchment. Down the front of the classroom, one of the pixies had gotten tangled in Hermione's hair, so Harry followed Draco's lead and battered it away with a book.

"Keep calm," Lockhart called, as he pulled out his wand. "You just have to know how to handle them."

Clearing his throat, Lockhart waved his wand and cast a ridiculous sounding spell. Draco suspected the Defence Professor was just making things up on the spot, and sure enough the spell did nothing to stop the pixies. In fact it just seemed to annoy them as three of them swooped on Lockhart and plucked his wand from his hand. As the wand went sailing out of the open window, the pixies turned back to Lockhart and rushed at him.

"House points to whoever can get the pixies back into their cage," Lockhart cried as he turned and fled into his office.

Lockhart's departure was the cue for Theo to yank open the door to the classroom and bolt for freedom. The majority of the class followed him, screaming and squealing as the pixies continued to nip at the students. Down the front of the classroom, Hermione was still having trouble with the pixies in her hair and Harry was still trying to detangle the mischievous creatures. Draco looked to see if Ron was helping, but he couldn't see any sign of the redhead. He'd obviously scarpered with the rest of the class.

"For crying out loud," Draco muttered as he batted a pixie away and pulled out his wand. "Immobulus."

Instantly the pixies froze in mid-air and Harry was able to pull the tiny blue menaces from Hermione's curls.

"Bloody pixies," Hermione grumbled as she rubbed at her head. Pulling out her wand, she sent their pixies back to the cage just as Lockhart poked his head out of the office door.

"Twenty points to all three of you," He called, before darting back into his office and shutting the door behind him.

"I'm assuming class is dismissed," Draco remarked as he gathered his things and strolled out of the classroom.

"Is it safe?" Theo asked when Draco emerged into the corridor where the rest of the class had gathered.

"Yeah, Granger gathered them back up," Draco replied. "Lockhart retreated to his office, so I'm guessing we can leave early."

"Why did you stay behind?" Blaise asked as the group turned to head back to the dungeons.

"I wanted to watch the fun," Draco replied. "Potter and Granger were struggling with a few of the little terrors and I wanted to see what happened. Besides, I got twenty points for just being there when Granger rounded up the little blighters."

"Nice one," Theo said with a laugh. "I bet the Gryffindors loved that."

Laughing about how Draco had gained points for doing nothing, the Slytherins headed off to prepare for their next lesson of the day. Lockhart was clearly going to be yet another useless Professor, but they could probably scam some house points from him as he wasn't too conscientious about checking who had done what.

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

Nestled in the private room in the library, Harry studied the diary he'd gotten from his grandfather. He was eager to use it to learn more about his grandfather, but right now they were expecting Draco so they could discuss the Chamber of Secrets. Beside him, Hermione was sitting doing her homework.

"You're dying to use that diary, aren't you," Hermione chuckled, glancing up and spotting Harry lovingly stroking the cover of the diary.

"Are you not curious about Grandpa's early life?" Harry asked.

"He's told us plenty of stories," Hermione replied with a shrug.

"But none about his school days," Harry pointed out. "Surely you're curious about what he was like back then."

"A little bit," Hermione conceded. "But I always figured he doesn't really talk about those days as he wasn't happy. Don't forget, he was stuck at that muggle orphanage when he wasn't at school. I don't think he likes remembering that time in his life."

"I don't suppose he would," Harry agreed, just as the door to the secret room slid open and Draco entered.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Draco said. "Theo wouldn't stop talking about Lockhart."

"Don't tell me he's a fan," Harry groaned. "The man is an idiot. The stunt in defence just showed how inept he is."

"Theo was just thinking how easy it will be to scam points from him," Draco replied as he settled down next to his two friends. "After all, we all got points and Lockhart had no idea which of caught the pixies."

"No-one got suspicious that you were with us, did they?" Hermione checked.

"Nah, I told them I stayed behind to watch you to battle the pixies," Draco said. "Things might have been trickier if Weasley had stuck around, but he scarpered with the rest of the class."

"Tell me about it," Hermione muttered darkly. "He pretended that he hadn't realised we weren't right behind him when he ran out of the classroom."

"He's either blind, or stupider than I thought," Draco said with a chuckle.

"I would go with the second option," Hermione said.

For the next ten minutes the trio caught up with how their first days back at Hogwarts had been, before they turned their attention to the reason they were meeting up. They had plenty planned for the upcoming year, and they needed to sort their plans so that nothing would go wrong.

"I think we should definitely wait a few weeks before opening the chamber," Hermione said. "If we open it too soon, we might have to drop Hagrid in it in a few weeks and all the fun will be over before we know it. I say we wait a few weeks, before opening it for the first time."

"I like that plan," Draco said with a nod. "It gives me time to get myself on the Slytherin quidditch team. Try-outs are in a few weeks, and I want a place on that team."

"What position are you going for?" Harry asked.

"I was hoping chaser, but the captain, Marcus Flint, reckons I'd make an ideal seeker."

"That could be fun," Harry said with a grin. "We can compete against each other."

"It's certainly going to be fun beating you," Draco returned, with a grin of his own.

"Stop with the quidditch talk," Hermione scolded. "We're supposed to be talking about the chamber."

"I thought we'd finished," Harry said with a frown. "You said we weren't opening it just yet."

"We're not, but we need to think about when we do open it," Hermione replied. "I think for the first time Harry and I should do the honours. We don't know how the creature will respond to Draco, so I think one of us should be present whenever we open the chamber."

"That sounds fair," Draco agreed. As the heirs of Slytherin it made sense that Harry and Hermione would have more control over the Basilisk that lay nestled at the heart of the school."

"On the day in question, you'll need an alibi Draco," Hermione continued. "And so will we, Harry. We need to find a way to be away from Ron without rousing suspicion."

"Leave that to me," Harry replied with a grin. "When we decide on a day, I'll make sure we're in detention with Dad. He can then cover for us while we sneak off and open the chamber."

"Great," Hermione replied with a nod. "But we also have another problem. The entrance to the chamber is located in a girls bathroom, but the bathroom is haunted by a ghost of a former student. Myrtle rarely leaves the room, and it's going to be hard to open the chamber without her knowing what we're doing."

"We need to get her out of the bathroom," Draco mused. "But how do we do that?"

"I have no idea," Hermione confessed. "But until we can get her out of the bathroom, we can't risk opening the chamber. We need an idea, and we need one quickly."

The room fell silent as the trio all tried to come up with a solution to their problem. Until they found a way to deal with Myrtle, they were at a standstill. Luckily they had a few months before they were ready to proceed, but they still needed to know how to handle the ghost that haunted the bathroom they needed to use to open the Chamber of Secrets and create havoc in the castle.


	5. Chapter 5

A month into the term, Harry had managed to use the dairy to correspond with his grandfather numerous times. Any spare moment he had he wrote in the diary, and he was thoroughly enjoying getting a glimpse into his grandfather's early life. It was currently a Saturday afternoon and he was settled in the Great Hall, writing in the diary instead of doing the homework that was laid out in front of him. All around him other students were all finding ways to pass the time. Several of them were in fact doing homework, but there were also chess matches and games of exploding snap being held.

Harry was all alone in the Great Hall as Hermione was in the library doing her studying. Hermione claimed she couldn't concentrate in the Great Hall as it was always so noisy, so she'd refused to join Harry. She had urged Harry to join her in the library, but unless they were using the secret room, Harry didn't really like using the library. The Librarian, Madam Pince, was ridiculously strict and Harry felt he couldn't even breathe without the witch giving him the evil eye.

As for Ron, he was off with Dean and Seamus, discussing their options for the upcoming quidditch try-outs. Now they were second years, they could try out for the team, and apart from Neville all the other boys in Gryffindor were going to give it a go. Privately the Gryffindor captain, Oliver Wood, had told Harry the chances of any of his classmates making the team was slim. The Gryffindor team was pretty much sorted, with only one chasers position really up for grabs. However, Harry hadn't told Ron about his slim hopes of making the team as he was enjoying the extra peace and quiet while Ron was practicing with their friends.

"Hi Harry."

Harry stifled his groan as Ginny slid into the seat next to him. Every time he saw Ginny, she made a point to say hello to him and she was forever staring at him in the common room or over meals. On a whole, Harry tried to avoid being alone with her, but occasionally he was stuck with the love-struck young girl.

"What are you doing?" She asked as Harry hurriedly shut the diary before she saw he was having a conversation with someone through the pages of the book.

"Nothing," Harry replied, slipping the diary safely into his bag. "I'm just finishing up and getting ready to leave."

"You didn't have to hide your diary from me," Ginny said with a mischievous smile. "I wouldn't peek."

"It's just a note book," Harry lied.

"I've seen you Harry, you're always writing in it," Ginny replied. "It's a diary of some sort, I can tell."

"Fine, it's my diary," Harry conceded, knowing that Ginny wouldn't be convinced of anything else now she had the idea in her head. "And it's private."

"Of course, all diaries are private," Ginny said with a nod. "I wouldn't dream of letting anyone see my diary."

Harry nodded, wondering just how much he featured in Ginny's diary. She seemed the sort that would get all soppy and spend ages doodling in her diary imagining what it would be like to be 'Ginny Potter'. Shuddering at the thought, Harry swept the rest of his books into his bag and got to his feet.

"I'll see you later, Ginny," He said.

"Definitely," Ginny replied, beaming up at Harry.

Harry quickly backed off and strode from the room before he accidentally encouraged Ginny some more. It seemed like no matter what he said to her she took it as an indication he was interested in her. Eager to get away from Ginny, Harry wasn't looking where he was going and as he left the Great Hall he collided with his father, sending the papers Severus was carrying all over the floor.

"Sorry," Harry said, bending down to help pick the papers up.

"You should look where you're going," Severus said sternly, aware that they were just outside of the Great Hall and someone might have seen their collision. "Once you've picked up everything, you can come back to my office and sort it for me."

"Yes sir," Harry mumbled, hiding his smile as he continued to pick up the sheets of parchment that lay everywhere.

Once Harry had picked up everything he'd knocked from his father's hands, he followed Severus down to the dungeons. Severus didn't speak until they'd reached his office and he'd ushered Harry inside.

"Just leave the papers on my desk," Severus said. "It'll take me two minutes to sort them."

"I really am sorry," Harry said as he dumped the papers on his father's desk and collapsed onto the chair in front of it.

"Why were you running out of the Great Hall as though your backside was on fire?" Severus questioned as he settled down in a chair beside his son.

"Ginny Weasley," Harry replied with a grimace. "She's like a limpet."

"You're starting early on the girl problems, Harry," Severus said with a chuckle. "Trust me to have a son who has girls chasing after him when he's only twelve. And here was me thinking Lucius would have those sorts of problems with Draco."

"I'm sure he will," Harry said, thinking about the way he'd seen Pansy Parkinson occasionally watching Draco.

"So what exactly is your problem with the youngest Weasley?"

"She's obsessed with me," Harry replied. "It started before I even met her. According to Ron she spent all summer talking about me, and when she met me she was practically star struck."

"There's a lot of it going around," Severus grumbled.

"Lockhart," Harry chuckled.

"The man is an egotistical moron," Severus snarled. "But everyone thinks he's great."

"You're not a fan?"

"Hardly."

"Nor am I," Harry admitted. "And Hermione and Draco don't like him either."

"Speaking of Hermione and Draco, how are the three of you coming along with the chamber?" Severus asked. "Are you opening it soon?"

"We were hoping to do it in the next few weeks, but we have a problem," Harry replied, before telling his father about the problem they had with Myrtle haunting the room.

"Horrid little ghost," Severus said with a shudder. "Although I think I might have something that might help."

Getting to his feet, Severus walked over to a cupboard in the corner of his office and began rooting around. A few minutes later, he turned back to Harry holding an incense burner and several incense sticks.

"Incense?" Harry questioned with a puzzled frown.

"They're magical and they keep ghosts away," Severus replied. "If you burn one of these, no ghosts will bother you. Technically they're not allowed in the main body of the school because Dumbledore feels we shouldn't restrict where the ghosts roam, but a few of the Professors have an incense set in their own personal chambers. It's not very pleasant to wake up in the night and find a ghost wandering around your bedroom."

"Has that happened?" Harry asked.

"Once," Severus replied. "In the very first year I was teaching. You take these, and use them when you have to. But Harry, make sure you don't get caught."

"We'll be careful," Harry vowed as he carefully packed the incense burner and sticks into his backpack. "Although speaking of not getting caught, Hermione and I will need you to provide us with an alibi the night we're going to open the chamber."

"Just let me know when and we can arrange something," Severus replied. "Now, do you have to leave immediately, or do you have some free time?"

"I've got all afternoon," Harry replied with a smile. He would much rather spend the afternoon with his father than fending off Ginny or listening to Ron ramble on about his quidditch try-outs.

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

"If you're going to complain Ron, we can go elsewhere," Hermione grumbled. "We don't have to support Harry at practice."

The pair were waiting outside of the changing rooms for the Gryffindor quidditch team so they could accompany them down to the quidditch pitch and watch training. The previous week try-outs had been held and to no-one's surprise but his own, Ron failed to make the team. However, he was determined to get on the team as soon as possible and he'd vowed to watch every practice to pick up some tips. Somehow he'd managed to rope Hermione into attending Gryffindors first training session, but so far all he'd done was complain that he wasn't playing.

"I'll stop complaining," Ron promised. "And look, here they come."

Hermione looked up to see Oliver Wood leading the Gryffindor quidditch team out of the changing rooms. Unfortunately the Gryffindors had no sooner exited the changing rooms when a second door opened and Marcus Flint walked out of the Slytherins changing rooms with his team behind him.

"Oi, Flint, what are you doing?" Oliver called, spotting the opposing team.

"Practising," Marcus replied with a smirk. "What are you lot doing?"

"It's our practise time, I booked the pitch days ago," Oliver retorted.

"We've got permission to practice today," Marcus said. Digging into his robes, he handed Oliver a folded bit of parchment.

Snatching the parchment from Marcus, Oliver opened it up and began to read. "I, Professor Severus Snape, give the Slytherin quidditch team permission to use the quidditch pitch on Saturday afternoon so they may train their new seeker."

"You've got a new seeker?" George Weasley asked from behind Oliver.

"Who?" Fred Weasley questioned.

Slowly the Slytherins parted and a smirking Draco made his way to the front of the group. Of course neither Harry nor Hermione was shocked by the news as Draco had already informed them that he'd gotten onto the team and would be playing seeker.

"Malfoy," Ron spat, glaring hatefully at the blond.

"Yes Draco," Marcus replied with a smug smirk. "He's going to be our star player this year. And because of him the entire team have brand new brooms."

For the first time Hermione looked at the brooms the Slytherins were carrying and realised they were all the latest version of the best broom available. She knew Lucius had promised Draco a new broom if he got onto the quidditch team, but it would seem he'd gone one step further and bought the entire team new brooms as well. It was typical of Lucius to spoil Draco in such a way, but Hermione couldn't help but think that someone was going to say Draco had bought his way onto the team. And sure enough, Ron did exactly that.

"Watch your mouth, Weaselbee," Draco snarled. "I earned my place on the team, and the brooms are a product of my father's generosity. You're just jealous of my family's wealth, after all you can't even afford a new wand."

Ron blushed furiously at the mention of his broken wand. Unfortunately, none of the Professors had been able to fix his wand. McGonagall had explained that once a wand was broken that it was impossible to ever fix it properly, the best you could do was patch it up and struggle on. She'd advised Ron to let his parents know so he could get a new wand, but Ron had been reluctant to do so. He knew they couldn't really afford to buy him a new wand, and he didn't want to upset his mother when she realised she couldn't provide something as simple as a wand for her youngest son.

"Shut your mouth, Malfoy," George snarled, stepping in front of his brother with Fred at his side.

"And who's going to make me?" Draco asked with a laugh. "I'm not scared of you two monkeys."

Fred and George both growled at Draco as they whipped out their wands and pointed them at the laughing blond. Instantly the Slytherins, all produced their own wands and pointed them at the twins as they gathered around Draco. The Gryffindors all replied in kind and in seconds the two teams were standing at wand point.

"Enough!" Hermione cried, stepping in-between the two sets of warring quidditch players. "This is ridiculous. Just let them go practice and come back another time."

"Listen to Granger," Draco said. "At least she has a brain, unlike you other Gryffindors."

"You're not helping, Malfoy," Hermione snarled. "Go and bugger off and get practising. You're going to need it when Harry whips your arse when you play each other."

The Gryffindors all laughed at Hermione's comments, while the Slytherins visibly bristled. A few of the Slytherins looked as though they were going to say more, but Draco stepped in and told them to leave it. Vowing to beat Gryffindor when they played each other, he led the Slytherins off towards the quidditch pitch.

"It looks like no training today," Harry said as the Gryffindors trooped back into the changing rooms, muttering about the Slytherins. "Once I'm changed, how about we go and spend the afternoon down by the lake."

"That sounds like a plan," Hermione said, smiling at Harry.

Ten minutes later, Harry was changed and the trio set off to enjoy an afternoon in the early autumn sun. Very soon the cold weather would hit and lazy afternoons spent beside the Black Lake would be a thing of the past. They had to enjoy the sun while they could, because very soon things were going to get a whole lot darker at Hogwarts. Very soon the Chamber of Secrets would be opened, and all hell was going to break loose.


	6. Chapter 6

Hermione entered potions with anticipation bubbling away inside her. Everything had fallen into place, and today was the day they were going to open the Chamber of Secrets for the first time. Draco had a quidditch practice with the Slytherins scheduled for before dinner, so that just left Harry and Hermione to land themselves in detention with Severus. Luckily a plan was in place, and very soon they would have their wish.

"Today we're going to be making a simple sleeping draught," Severus announced as the class took their seats. "The instructions are on the board, so get going."

"I wish he'd give us notice when we're making potions," Ron grumbled.

Beside Ron, Harry began setting up his cauldron and beside him, Hermione was doing the same. While a lot of people, including Ron, were rushing off to grab their ingredients, Hermione took a moment to read the instructions on the board. After reading the instructions, Hermione found that several ingredients needed to be added to the cauldron before it was placed over heat. However, several people had immediately lit their cauldrons before heading off to grab their ingredients.

"Don't," She hissed at Harry when he pulled his wand out to light his cauldron. Like her Harry was a more than capable potions maker, but the mistakes he would be making today were all part of their plan to end up in detention with Severus. "Read the instructions, Harry. It's not time to heat the cauldron."

"Thanks Hermione," Harry replied with a grin. Looking up at the board, he read the instructions properly and inwardly smirked as he spotted Severus watching them suspiciously.

Making a note of the ingredients she would need, and the quantities so she didn't get too much of anything, Hermione headed off to the supply cupboard. When she returned, she sorted everything out before beginning to make her potion. As she made her own potion, Hermione kept an eye on Harry and a couple of times she quietly helped him when he was going to make a mistake.

"Miss Granger," Severus suddenly called, causing Hermione to jump in surprise and slide away from Harry's work area. "I don't recall assigning partners in this class. Kindly concentrate on your own work and leave Mr Potter to manage himself."

"Yes sir," Hermione muttered as she turned back to her own work.

For the next half hour, Hermione focused on her own potion. Glancing up at the instructions, Hermione was pleased to find her potion had the lilac shimmer it was supposed to have at this stage. Now she just had to leave it for five minutes, until the lilac shimmer darkened into a deeper shade of purple. Taking her wooden spoon out of her cauldron, she placed it to one side and settled down on her chair to wait for the next stage.

"Hermione, help," Harry hissed beside her. "My potion is green, and it's bubbling."

Hermione glanced over to Harry's potion and found a lime green concoction that was bubbling away merrily. Flicking her attention to Severus, she found he was busy marking work, so she slid closer to Harry and double checked what he'd done so she could find where he'd gone wrong.

"Turn off the heat, and add an extra sprig of lavender," She advised. "Hopefully it'll help."

"Which ones the lavender?" Harry checked, gesturing to the two plants he had on his desk.

"That one." Hermione pointed to the lavender on the desk. "But don't add too much or it'll change the potion into a dream potion, not a sleeping draught."

"Very good Miss Granger," Severus drawled, startling Hermione and Harry as he was now standing in front of their desk, glaring at the pair. "However, I told you to concentrate on your own work and to stop helping your friends. For deliberately disobeying my instructions the pair of you can join me in detention this evening. I'll expect you back down here the second your final class of the day is dismissed. And if I catch either of you cheating again, you'll be in detention for the rest of the term. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Harry and Hermione replied together as they hid their satisfied expressions from the rest of the class.

"Now get on with your work," Severus snapped. "All of you," He added with a snarl as he spotted other students watching his interactions with Harry and Hermione.

Making sure they didn't let on how pleased they were that their plan had been a success, Harry and Hermione returned to their respective potions. By the end of the class, Hermione had made a perfect sleeping draught, while Harry's potion was a bit of a disaster. However, one bad potion was a small price to pay to achieve what they needed to in the lesson.

"You two are so unlucky," Ron groaned as the Gryffindor trio exited potions and headed towards Charms, which was their next lesson. "Over the other side of the room, Malfoy was helping Crabbe and Goyle and Snape never said a word. It's so unfair."

"It's our own fault," Harry said with a shrug. "He warned us, and we didn't listen."

"Even so, he should treat everyone the same," Ron argued. "It's not fair that you two have detention and Malfoy was doing the same thing, and he's free this evening. Snape is so biased towards the Slytherins, someone should complain."

"Are you volunteering?" Hermione asked.

At the thought of confronting the Potions Professor over his favouritism towards his own house, Ron paled and shook his head. "Perhaps, it's better to stay quiet."

"Yeah, we'll just serve our detention and try not to get into any more trouble with him," Harry said.

"Good luck," Ron replied with a snort. "Snape has it in for Gryffindors, and now he's got you two in his sights. I'm just lucky I wasn't caught up in things today."

Sharing an amused look, Harry and Hermione followed Ron into Charms. Their plan had worked perfectly and no-one realised that their detention wasn't genuine. Now everyone would think they were down in the dungeons before dinner, giving them a perfect alibi for when the Chamber of Secrets was opened.

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

After lessons finished, Hermione and Harry headed down to the dungeons. Severus was waiting for them, and he'd ensured that no-one else was near to his classroom. Since they had nearly two hours before dinner, they decided that Hermione and Harry would wait for a while before heading off to open the chamber.

"Do you have any blood?" Hermione asked her brother.

"Blood?" Severus gave Hermione a puzzled look, and Harry also seemed bemused by her request.

"Yes, blood," Hermione clarified. "We can't just open the chamber, we need to send a message as well. We need to advertise the fact the chamber is open."

"Won't the first victim do that?" Harry asked. They'd already discussed that they would start off by getting the Basilisk to petrify someone, and they would only resort to getting the beast to actually kill if necessary.

"We still need to make sure people know the chamber has been opened," Hermione replied. "Even a petrified person won't immediately rouse suspicions about the chamber, unless someone knows about it."

"Hermione's right," Severus said. "Dumbledore knows about the chamber, and a few of the other staff might know the legends, but they're not going to advertise the fact there's a hidden chamber hiding a monster in the school. You need to make sure everyone is aware the chamber is open."

"Hence my need for blood," Hermione said. "So, do you have any Severus?"

"I've got some dragon's blood, and some pig's blood," Severus replied as he unlocked his own personal supply cupboard. "Which do you want?"

"Either," Hermione answered with an unconcerned shrug. "As long as we can write a quick message beside the first victim."

Retrieving the bottles of blood, Severus handed them both to his little sister. With a word of caution for the pair to be careful, he allowed them to sneak off and open the chamber. Quickly checking they had everything they would need, Harry and Hermione exited the potions classroom via Severus's office. Making sure they weren't seen, the pair snuck up to the second floor, where the bathroom they wanted to use was located.

"What's with all the water?" Harry asked, freezing as they rounded the corner and found the entire corridor flooded.

"Myrtle must have flooded the bathroom," Hermione said. Pulling out her wand, she cast waterproof charms on her and Harry's feet. "Come on Harry, let's go and say hello."

"Are you sure we should let her see us?" Harry asked.

"We're not going to let her see us," Hermione replied with a chuckle. "We're going to light the incense, and slide it into the bathroom. That should get rid of Myrtle before we enter."

Double checking they were still alone, Harry pulled the incense from his bag and Hermione lighted it before opening the bathroom door and sliding it inside the room. The pair gave it a couple of minutes to work, before Hermione cautiously led the way into the bathroom.

"It's all clear," Hermione called as she moved the incense burner to the centre of the room.

Harry entered the bathroom, and found that the floor was also wet. Myrtle had done a great job of flooding the bathroom, and if it was something she did regularly, he could understand why the bathroom wasn't frequently used by students. Besides, who would want to use a bathroom when a ghost could pop up when you were making use of the facilities?

"This is the one," Hermione called, as she located the sink which hid the entrance to the chamber. "Do you want to do the honours?"

Harry stepped forward, and taking hold of Hermione's hand he began to open the chamber. Luckily just saying 'open up' in Parseltongue was enough to have the sink sliding to one side and a dark hole opening up in front of them.

"Remember not to look directly at it," Hermione warned as they heard movement down below them. Even though the Basilisk hunted out muggleborns, its gaze could kill anyone so they had to be careful.

Harry and Hermione lowered their heads as they sensed the Basilisk rising from the chamber. When the Basilisk emerged it paused, recognising that the two young people in front of it were the heirs of its master.

"Hello, beautiful," Hermione said, carefully reaching out and running her hand down the Basilisk's back. "We're going to let you out to have some fun. You've got ten minutes to go and petrify someone. Don't kill, not just yet."

"Yes, mistress," The Basilisk hissed in response.

"Keep us informed of where you are," Harry added. "We need to know where you are and where the victim is."

"And don't be seen," Hermione ordered.

Hermione and Harry felt, rather than heard, the Basilisk obeying, before it slithered out of the chamber entrance and disappeared down one of the nearby toilets. The Basilisk kept a running commentary up in its head, so Hermione and Harry were able to follow its progress. It was clear the creature was going to use the pipes to get around, so chances of it being seen were minimal. It would be easy enough for the Basilisk to pop out and petrify someone, before darting back into the plumbing.

"Did you hear that?" Harry said, whirling round when he heard a yowling just outside the bathroom door.

"Mrs Norris?" Hermione questioned, wondering if they should hide in one of the toilet stalls if Filch was prowling around.

Before they got a chance to even discuss hiding, they heard the Basilisk returning. From its thoughts, they determined it had done as they asked, and the victims were actually just outside the bathroom. The water had been perfect for the Basilisk to sneak up behind someone so they only saw its reflection in the water.

"I'm going to go and see who it caught," Hermione said to Harry. "Once it's back in the chamber, close it again. But remember to let her know we're very happy with her and we'll be seeing her soon."

"Her?" Harry queried. "How do you know the Basilisk is a she?"

Hermione shrugged, not really sure how she knew the creature they'd just released was a female. "Instinct," She offered.

Leaving Harry to finish up in the bathroom, Hermione grabbed the bottles of blood and snuck back into the corridor. Lying just outside the bathroom was the still body of Filch's cat, Mrs Norris, alongside a female student. Stepping around the student, Hermione got a good look at her and vaguely recognised her as Penelope Clearwater, a prefect in Percy's year.

Double checking, she was still alone, Hermione uncorked the first bottle of blood and using magic she wrote a message on the wall beside the bathroom. By the time Harry emerged, having sealed the chamber again and removed the incense, Hermione had finished her message. In large writing just above the two victims was the message; The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir beware.

"What do you think?" Hermione asked.

"Perfect," Harry replied with a grin. "Now let's get out of here before we're spotted."

Keeping to the shadows, the pair snuck back down to the dungeons. Luckily they didn't run into anyone and they were able to sneak back into Severus's office and return to the Potions classroom. Once back in the classroom, Hermione gave Severus back the blood she hadn't used while Harry filled his father in on what they'd achieved.

"It's almost dinner time, so I suggest we go and eat," Severus said, checking the time. "With a bit of luck, your exploits will soon come to light."

As it turned out, it was halfway through dinner before anything happened. For the first half an hour, Harry and Hermione fielded Ron's questions about their detention with Severus as they waited for something to happen. Finally, they got their wish when the doors to the Great Hall slammed open and Filch burst in.

"Someone's murdered my cat," He cried. "And there's a student hurt," He added in almost an afterthought.

There was instant pandemonium in the Great Hall as everyone jumped up to see what was happening. Dumbledore and the other Professors hurried to Filch, and when they left the Great Hall the entire student body followed. Of course, not everyone could fit in the corridor beside the girls bathroom, but those at the front quickly got the message passed around that Mrs Norris and Penelope were lying motionless and there was a message written in blood on the wall.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware," Theo read. Of course the Slytherins had managed to push their way right to the front of the group of students. "That means, mudbloods."

"Enough," Dumbledore called, glaring warningly at Theo. "I will not tolerate that word in my school. Everyone is to return to their dorm rooms."

"What about my cat?" Filch demanded as the students slowly began to depart. "I want to know who killed her."

"She's not dead, Argus," Dumbledore said gently. "She's just petrified."

"Ah, I was just about to say that," Lockhart said with a nod.

"You've had experience of petrification?" McGonagall asked the Defence Professor.

"Some," Lockhart replied.

"So you can cure her?" Filch asked hopefully.

"Ah well, now that's a bit tricky," Lockhart replied unsurely.

"Don't worry, we'll sort a cure," Dumbledore reassured the devastated caretaker. "Pomona, are your mandrakes ready to be harvested? If they are, you and Poppy could whip up an antidote."

"They'll not be ready for another few months, I'm afraid," Professor Sprout answered.

"Until then, we must make Miss Clearwater and Mrs Norris comfortable," Dumbledore said as he began to sort the mess out.

Finally, all the students had gone back to their dorm room, and the two victims had been removed. Standing looking at the message on the wall, Dumbledore felt a foreboding presence in the castle. The last time the chamber had been opened, the school had almost closed. He just hoped that this time he could bring a swift resolution to the problem, and things wouldn't go as far as they had all those years ago.


	7. Chapter 7

The Chamber of Secrets was all anyone could talk about for several days after the discovery of Penelope and Mrs Norris. Word had quickly leaked out that neither of them were dead, they'd merely been petrified. Dumbledore had publically assured the students that they had nothing to worry about and the situation was in hand. However, Dumbledore's reassurances weren't enough to stop the students from worrying and speculating about what was going to happen next.

In the aftermath of the chamber being opened, lessons were running less than smoothly. All the Professors were struggling to get the students to concentrate on their work. Of course it didn't help that the Professors themselves were worried about what was going on, and there was often members of staff patrolling the corridors in between lessons and on an evening.

Three days after the incident with the chamber, McGonagall was trying to get her second year Gryffindors and Slytherins to concentrate. The class was supposed to be learning how to turn animals into water goblets, but all they could talk about was the Chamber of Secrets. As McGonagall tried to get the students to concentrate, she could hear all sorts of wild rumours flying around the classroom. Finally, she'd had enough and called for the entire class to be quiet.

"In order to get on with some actual work, I think it's time we discussed recent events," She announced. "Obviously you have some questions, maybe I can help answer some of them." Immediately half the class put their hands up, and McGonagall had to pick where to start. "Miss Granger."

"What exactly do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?" Hermione asked.

"The chamber was built at the same time as the school, but only Salazar Slytherin knew of its existence," McGonagall began. "It's not clear what his original intention was for the chamber, but as the school began to grow he found himself increasingly at odds with the other founders over the admittance of muggleborns. In an attempt to rid the school of muggleborns, he found a terrifying creature that would pray on them and installed it in the chamber. He left the school before he could release the creature, but he swore his heir would one day return to Hogwarts and let the creature out."

"What exactly is the creature?" Theo asked.

"No-one knows," McGonagall replied. "Don't forget, this is all just rumour. No-on has seen this supposed creature."

"What about the student that was petrified?" Dean Thomas questioned. "Surely she saw the creature."

"Until Miss Clearwater wakes up, we have no idea what she saw," McGonagall said.

"How did she end up petrified, then?" Daphne Greengrass asked. "How do you even get petrified?"

"Petrification is a state of pure terror," McGonagall explained. "People are petrified when they see something so horrific that they can't process it. Their magic seals them in a comatose state, and they remain that way until woken by a special draught brewed with mandrake root."

"Where is the chamber supposed to be located?" Draco asked.

"No-one knows," McGonagall replied. "The castle has been searched numerous times over the years, and no such chamber has ever been found. Because of recent events, the school is being searched again, and no doubt nothing will be found."

"You don't believe the chamber exists, do you?" Harry asked.

"No proof has ever been found to say the chamber exists," McGonagall replied carefully, although both Harry and Hermione noticed an uncertain flicker in her eyes. "Now if you have no more questions, let's get on with our work."

"I have one more," Blaise said, raising his hand into the air. "What happens if more people are attacked? Will the school close?"

"I'm sure it won't come to that," McGonagall replied with a tight smile. "Professor Dumbledore has everything in hand. I'm sure there'll be no more attacks. Now, that is definitely enough. Let's get back to your work, and I want to see goblets on everyone's desk before the end of the lesson."

It took a few minutes, before everyone settled down and returned their focus on their Transfiguration work. Throughout the rest of the lesson, Hermione considered what McGonagall had told them, along with her own reactions. McGonagall's words implied that she didn't believe the Chamber of Secrets was real, but there'd been something in her eyes that told a different story. Hermione was convinced that McGonagall knew more than she was saying, and that she truly was worried about the chamber, despite her reassurances that everything was okay.

After Transfiguration, the Gryffindors had Charms before their day came to an end. While Harry and Ron headed back to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione retreated to the library. She and Harry had already discussed finding some information on the chamber, as Ron was really curious and they felt it would seem odd if they didn't share his curiosity. However, she was also looking for information regarding McGonagall, and what she could know about the chamber. It might just be that Dumbledore had told the staff about his previous experience with the chamber, but there might be another story there.

Hermione spent ten minutes gathering a few books from around the library, before sneaking into the small room. When she entered the room she got a shock when she found Draco slouched on a chair with his feet resting on the table.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, surprised as she hadn't seen Draco enter the library.

"Reading," Draco answered, showing Hermione a large history book he was scouring. "We got out of Herbology early when Blaise accidently set fire to one of the chairs."

"How did Blaise set fire to a chair?" Hermione asked in bewilderment.

"He was teasing one of Professor Sprout's fire breathing roses, and it tried to burn him. He picked up the chair to shield himself and the rose burnt the chair. Professor Sprout was so annoyed that she gave Blaise detention and told the rest of us to leave early."

"That sounds like fun," Hermione said with a laugh as she settled down next to her friend. "I wish I'd seen it."

"It was rather amusing," Draco agreed.

"So, why are you reading a history book?" Hermione asked.

"It's got a section in about Hogwarts," Draco replied. "I'm just wondering if it mentions anything about the Chamber of Secrets."

"That's what I'm looking for," Hermione said as she gestured to her own pile of books. "Ron is naturally curious so Harry and I need to play along. It'll look strange if he's wanting to know what's going on and we're not bothered."

"I'm sure we can find something you can show to Weasley," Draco said. "We can search together."

"I also want to try and find out more about McGonagall," Hermione said. "I know she tried to sound like she didn't believe the chamber existed, but both Harry and I agreed that there was something she wasn't saying."

"Like the fact she was here last time it was opened?" Draco asked with a smirk.

Hermione's mouth dropped open as she stared at Draco. "She was here when Father opened the chamber?"

"Yep," Draco replied with a nod. "I was talking to Severus the day after you and Harry opened the chamber, and he told me that when the staff discussed it both Dumbledore and McGonagall had prior knowledge of the chamber. Dumbledore was teaching when your father opened the chamber, but McGonagall was actually at school as a student in the year above your father."

"That's why she's so worried," Hermione declared with a grin. "She knows the chamber exists, because she's witnessed it before. I wonder if she'll tell anyone that Hagrid was accused of opening it."

"I doubt it," Draco replied with a snort. "She's tight with old Dumbledore, and more than likely he's convinced her that Hagrid is innocent. After all, she would know your father was at school at the time and it would make sense if she now thought he'd opened the chamber all those years ago."

"I guess you're right," Hermione agreed. "McGonagall will keep Hagrid out of it if she can. She's already trying to convince the students everything will be okay."

"I don't think any of the Professors are fooling anyone," Draco remarked. "The whole school can see just how worried they are. You can't walk through the school without bumping into a member of staff."

"Tell me about it," Hermione muttered. "It's going to make opening the chamber a second time much harder. We might even have to wait until after Christmas before we open it again."

"We do have all year," Draco said. "Caution is probably wise."

"I know, but it's so boring," Hermione whined.

Chuckling at Hermione, Draco turned his attention back to his book. Beside him, Hermione got one of her books out and together they began to look for something about the Chamber of Secrets. None of the official books about Hogwarts mentioned the chamber, most likely in order to pretend it didn't exist, but finally Draco found a small section about the history of the Chamber of Secrets in a book about the history of magical Britain. There were several chapters devoted to Hogwarts, and as part of those chapters there was a section about the chamber.

"Brilliant," Hermione cried. Wrapping her arms around Draco, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "You're amazing."

"I know," He replied cockily as he felt his cheeks heat where Hermione had impulsively kissed him.

"I can take this back up to Gryffindor Tower to show Harry and Ron," She continued, not noticing Draco's blush. "It's enough to convince Ron we're just as curious as him about the chamber."

"Just as long as he doesn't suggest the three of you go looking for the chamber," Draco said. "I think he likes being a hero, and no doubt he'll want to be in the limelight some more this year."

"Unfortunately for Ron, he won't get to be a hero this year," Hermione replied as she packed up her books. "He won't get anywhere near the chamber."

Exchanging goodbyes, Hermione darted out of the room first before Draco followed a few minutes later. When they then passed each other at the library doors, after Hermione had checked out the history book, they studiously ignored each other and they left the library and headed in opposite directions. Draco headed down to the dungeons, while Hermione headed up to Gryffindor Tower on the seventh floor.

Hermione didn't have time to show Harry and Ron the book before dinner, but once they'd been down to the Great Hall and had something to eat, she showed them what she'd found. The trio had settled themselves in the boys' dorms so they wouldn't be disturbed as Hermione showed them the book and read the passages about the Chamber of Secrets. The book told the same story as McGonagall about the chambers early history, but unlike McGonagall it also chronicled the time the chamber was opened.

"Malfoy," Ron declared the second Hermione had finished reading.

"Excuse me?" Harry looked at Ron in bewilderment, not understanding why he was bringing Draco up.

"It has to be Malfoy," Ron said. "Lucius Malfoy clearly opened the chamber when he was in school, and now he's told Malfoy how to do the same. Malfoy's the heir of Slytherin."

"I'm sure he'd love to be called that," Hermione said with an amused snort. "But the timings don't work. According to these dates, the Chamber was opened fifty years ago. There's no way Lucius Malfoy is over sixty."

"Malfoy's grandfather then?" Ron suggested. "Malfoy's always bragging about how his family's been in Slytherin for generations."

"If that's the case, why would his grandfather tell him and not his own son?" Harry asked. "It doesn't make sense for it to be Malfoy or any of his family."

"Bugger, I thought I'd solved the whole thing," Ron said with a dramatic sigh. "Malfoy was the perfect candidate."

"He is pretty well suited, but it just can't be him," Hermione said. "Besides, he has an alibi for the night the chamber was opened. The Slytherin quidditch team were practising and Madam Hooch was nearby the entire time."

"You've checked his movements out, you suspected him," Ron declared in triumph.

"It crossed my mind," Hermione admitted. "But it doesn't fit. Malfoy is not the heir of Slytherin."

"Then who is?" Ron asked seriously, not knowing he was addressing two of the three heirs of Slytherin that resided in Hogwarts.

"Who knows?" Hermione replied as she stifled a yawn. "But that's a question for another day. Right now, I'm going to bed. Night, boys."

"Night, Hermione," Harry called.

"Night, 'Mione," Ron muttered as he let out a yawn of his own.

"Please don't call me that, Ronald," Hermione said with a frown. "My name is Hermione, not 'Mione."

"Sorry," Ron apologised, giving the brunette witch a sheepish smile. "I'll not do it again."

Hoping Ron kept to his word and never shortened her name again, Hermione left the boys dorms and headed up to her own room. Within fifteen minutes she was ready for bed and nestled in her bed with the drapes pulled around her bed. Lying beside her was the book she was reading, but Hermione's thoughts were preoccupied by the Chamber of Secrets. She couldn't wait to open it again and create more mayhem, but she'd meant what she'd said earlier to Draco. At the minute it was just too dangerous to be opening the chamber for a second time. They would have to wait for things to calm down before they could attempt a second outing for the Basilisk, and that might very well mean waiting until after Christmas.

* * *

 **A/N – Thanks for all the great reviews I've been receiving for this story. I'm so pleased people are enjoying Children of the Dark. I'm well into writing the third one, and can't wait for later ones and some of the things I've got planned.**

 **The part in this chapter about McGonagall I got from a Harry Potter website when I was researching birthdates for another character for another story. I did find another website that had McGonagall attending school ten years after the Chamber was opened, but I thought this made more sense and it worked perfectly for this story.**


	8. Chapter 8

With all the fuss surrounding the Chamber of Secrets, the first quidditch matches of the season were put on the backburner. Finally the last week of the term, Dumbledore decided the matches should be played as he tried to ensure the school ran as normal as possible. The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff match took place first, and for the first match of the school year it was fairly sedate game. Luckily the second match was Gryffindor and Slytherin and the rivalry between the two houses always produced excellent games of quidditch.

Settling in the Gryffindor stands with Ron and their other friends, Hermione was a bundle of nerves. The match would be Draco's first match on the Slytherin team, and she couldn't help but wish it had been against someone other than Gryffindor. Ideally, it would have been great for Draco to have a match against one of the other teams before having to face Harry. At least then Hermione could have fully supported her best friend in his first match, instead of felling torn over who to support.

Hermione wanted both Harry and Draco to do well, but she was very aware there could only be one winner. One of them was going to end up disappointed, and she had no idea which one she would prefer it to be. Of course, if Harry caught the snitch it would likely mean that Gryffindor won the match and as her house it should be the result she wanted. However, a win for Draco would mean a win for Slytherin and that was where her heart truly lay. Both her and Harry were Slytherins at heart, and being in Gryffindor couldn't spoil the affection they held for the house their best friend was in.

"I'm so looking forward to this match," Ron said from beside Hermione. "I can't wait to see Harry give Malfoy a lesson on how to play quidditch. It's about time that blond git got his comeuppance."

Not trusting herself not to snap at Ron or reveal her nerves, Hermione merely nodded. Luckily, Ron had Neville, Dean and Seamus to chat to so he wasn't bothered by her lack of enthusiasm. Unluckily, Ginny had settled herself on the other side of Hermione and the redhead was biting her lower lip nervously as she wriggled in her seat slightly.

"Do you have to do that, Ginny?" Hermione asked impatiently. "Can't you sit still?"

"Sorry, I'm nervous," Ginny replied. "I just can't believe I get to watch Harry playing quidditch. It's a dream come true."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the younger girl, as she focused her attention on the pitch as the two teams emerged. Harry and Draco both looked confident as they took to the skies with their teams and faced off against one another. Still totally unsure who her backing should be going to, Hermione watched with baited breath as Madam Hooch blew the whistle and the game began.

Immediately, Harry and Draco rose above the other players and began their search for the golden snitch. Both boys kept close enough to each other that they would notice if either of them got a lead, but they kept enough distance so they wouldn't be tempted to have a chat. For almost half an hour, the pair flew around the stadium, looking for the snitch. A couple of times they had it in sight and took off after it, but it kept disappearing again and they were left empty handed.

"Malfoy's pretty good," Dean remarked as they watched both seekers fly towards the ground and just stop short of hitting the ground.

"He hasn't caught the snitch, has he?" Ron huffed.

"Neither has Harry," Seamus argued. "Malfoy's with him every step of the way. I say this is going to be a close game."

Ron grumbled his protests, but Seamus was right and the game was indeed pretty close. The scores were practically neck and neck, and it soon became clear the winner was going to be determined by who won the snitch. After several near misses with the snitch, it became clear again that both Harry and Draco had the tiny golden ball in their sights as they darted through the other players. The pair were jostling for position as they chased the snitch, and no-one knew just which one was going to be the first to grab it. At this point, it could all come down to luck and the match could be determined by whoever was lucky enough to grasp the little ball in their fingertips.

"Whoa, where are they going?" Dean cried, jumping up to get a better view as both seekers darted underneath the Hufflepuff stand.

With the action confined to under the stands, the crowds were left to wait and wonder what was going on below them. The other players carried on with the match, but almost all the crowd were scanning the floor for signs that either Draco or Harry were going to emerge victorious. Ten minutes passed without sight of either boy, when suddenly there was movement underneath the Ravenclaw stand and a flash of green and silver hurtled onto the pitch, followed by an unmanned broomstick.

Hermione couldn't help her gasp as Draco landed on the ground with an almighty thud and rolled over several times, before coming to a complete stop. Peering down at the pitch, her heart was in her mouth as she waited for Draco to move. However, the blond was perfectly still, lying sprawled on the floor. Across the stadium the Professors were making their way down their stand, and the Slytherin players were worriedly watching their young seeker as they carried on with the game. Just when it looked like the game might be called off, there was a flash of gold and red and Harry emerged from under the Ravenclaw stands, holding onto the snitch.

"Gryffindor win," Madam Hooch cried as she blew her whistle.

Instantly the students around Hermione began to cheer, but her focus was down on the pitch below. Madam Hooch and a few of the Professors were gathered around Draco, and all the Slytherin quidditch team were also watching on. Harry stood nearby with the Gryffindor team, but while they were all celebrating, Harry looked pale and shaken.

Hermione had to fight her way out of the Gryffindor stand, but eventually she reached the ground below. As she made her way across the pitch to where Harry was standing, she spotted Draco being helped to his feet. Joining Harry, she found they were close enough to the Professors to hear just what was going on with their friend.

"I'm fine," Draco insisted when Severus asked how he was.

"You're going to the hospital wing," Severus replied. "You were unconscious and need checking out."

"Fine," Draco said with a resigned sigh.

As Draco was escorted off the pitch, Hermione turned to Harry. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Harry replied quietly. "I'm just happy Draco's alright."

Before Hermione got a chance to ask what had happened under the stands, Ron and the other Gryffindors arrived on the pitch and Harry was swamped with people congratulating him.

"I think it's time we partied," George called. "Fred and I will get some stuff from the kitchen once we've changed."

"Are you coming back up to Gryffindor Tower?" Ron asked Hermione as Harry was dragged off with the rest of the team to change.

"I'll wait for Harry," Hermione replied. Hopefully she and Harry could have a chat before they had to make their presence felt in Gryffindor Tower.

Hermione only had to wait ten minutes before Harry emerged from the changing rooms. Harry still didn't look too happy and he was more than willing to accompany Hermione back to the abandoned quidditch pitch so they could talk.

"What happened, Harry?" Hermione asked. She could tell Harry felt guilty for what happened to Draco, but she was betting whatever had happened hadn't been his fault.

"We were chasing the snitch down under the stands, and there's a lot of beams down there to avoid. Draco and I were pretty much neck and neck, but there wasn't much space and we kept bumping into each other. I accidently elbowed Draco as I reached out for the snitch, and he lost control of his broom and slammed into a beam. He went flying off his broom, and I ended up catching the snitch."

"It was an accident, Harry," Hermione said reassuringly. "Draco won't blame you. And he seemed perfectly fine."

"He might be fine physically, but I doubt he's fine in other ways," Harry muttered. "He didn't just lose the match, he lost it in pretty humiliating fashion. In his shoes, I'm not so sure I'd be as willing to forgive."

"Really?" Hermione looked at Harry in disbelief. If the positions had been reversed, she didn't for one minute think Harry would hold a grudge against Draco.

"Okay, I wouldn't be mad at Draco if the positions had been reversed," Harry admitted.

"Go and see him," Hermione urged. "You can check he's okay, and assure yourself he's not holding any grudges. I'll cover for you with Ron and the others."

"Thanks Hermione, you're the best," Harry said, giving Hermione a peck on the cheek.

While Hermione headed off to make sure no-one went looking for Harry, he headed off to the hospital wing to check on Draco. Luckily, when he arrived his friend was on his own. Harry had been worried that some of his team mates would be hanging around, but Draco was sitting moodily on one of the beds. The only other person in the room was a petrified Penelope, but she was at the end of the room and the curtains were drawn around her bed.

"Hey, is anyone around?" Harry asked tentatively as he poked his head into the hospital wing.

"Nah," Draco replied. "The team's headed back to the dungeons to mope, and Madam Pomfrey went off to deal with a sick first year. I have to stay here until she returns, and if she's happy I'm okay I can leave."

"Are you okay?" Harry asked as he moved to stand next to his friend's bedside.

"I'm fine," Draco replied. "I ache a bit, but other than that I'm unhurt. Unless you count my pride of course. That took a battering."

"I'm sorry Draco, I never meant for you to fly off your broom," Harry said. "I didn't deliberately elbow you."

"I know you didn't," Draco said, giving Harry a reassuring smile. "I could just have easily elbowed you. There was no room down there, and our clash was a complete accident."

"I'm still sorry," Harry said with a sigh. "It was a hell of way for your first game to end."

"Tell me about it," Draco snorted. "I'm already under orders to make amends in the next two matches."

"You'll do that," Harry replied confidently. "You'll thrash Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw."

"Of course," Draco said with a cocky grin. "Now haven't you got celebrations to get to? I'm sure the Gryffindors want to toast their hero."

"They're already organising a party," Harry admitted. "Hermione's covering for me."

"Then go and have fun, Harry," Draco urged. "Don't worry about me. What happened was an accident, and I don't hold anything against you."

"Thanks," Harry said with a smile. "You're a great friend."

"Of course I am, I'm the best." Draco grinned cockily at Harry, causing him to laugh.

Saying goodbye, Harry left the hospital wing before anyone returned and headed up to Gryffindor Tower. Hermione had covered for him expertly, and no-one questioned him when he entered the room and joined the party.

"Well?" Hermione asked, pulling Harry to one side.

"You were right," Harry said with a relieved smile. "No grudges."

"See, I told you so," Hermione said. "Friends don't hold grudges over accidents."

"As usual, you were right," Harry replied with a grin.

Hermione grinned back at Harry, pleased to see him not blaming himself for Draco's accident. "It's because I'm older and wiser than you."

Re-joining the party, Harry and Hermione spent a few hours celebrating with their house mates. As well as the quidditch win, there was also a festive atmosphere as people began to look forward to the upcoming holidays. In a few days they would break for Christmas, but when they returned Hermione planned on getting on with the fun of opening the Chamber of Secrets.

After a few hours, Hermione slipped out of Gryffindor Tower and headed down to the library. No doubt the partying would continue almost all night and she wanted some peace and quiet before heading off to bed for the night. Entering the library, Hermione grabbed a book to read and snuck into the secret room. What she didn't expect was to find Draco already settled in the room.

"Hey," She said softly, smiling at her friend. "Are you okay?"

"I guess," Draco replied as Hermione sat down on the sofa beside him.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Hermione checked. She figured Harry would have mentioned if Draco had been hurt, but he'd still had a hell of a fall and she wanted to be sure he was okay.

"I'm just a bit achy, nothing too serious," Draco said. "I would just rather have not come off my broom like that, it was pretty embarrassing."

"It was pretty scary," Hermione corrected. "I was so worried you were seriously hurt. See, I've always said quidditch was a dangerous game."

"Luckily for me, I'm okay," Draco said, putting his arm around Hermione and giving her a hug. "How's Harry? He seemed a bit shaken up by the entire thing. When we talked earlier, he seemed to be blaming himself."

"He was, but your talk helped his see it was just an accident," Hermione replied. "To be honest, I think incidents like these just highlight how much of an act we have to put on while we're in school. Neither Harry nor I could show any real concern for you, and Harry had to sneak into the hospital wing to see you. Sometimes, I wish things were more straightforward."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Draco said quietly. "But one day things will be different, and we'll no longer have to hide. The entire world will know the truth, and we can be friends for everyone to see."

Hermione smiled as she thought about the future Draco was describing. It was still a long way off, but it felt good knowing that one day their act would be over and she could just be herself. She could drop the muggleborn act and embrace her identity as daughter of the Dark Lord.


	9. Chapter 9

The Christmas holidays seemed to fly over for Hermione, Harry and Draco. The couple of weeks they got to spend at home, not putting on an act and hiding their friendship, seemed to whizz over. It felt as though they'd no sooner arrived home then they were back on the Hogwarts Express and heading back up to school for the rest of the year. Even though the holidays had seemed to pass exceptionally fast, the trio had still made the most of their time together. Apart from summer it was the only time they truly got to spend time together without having to hide, and they enjoyed every second of it.

As well as enjoying the freedom to spend the holidays together, the trio also made plans for when they returned to school. They knew from Lucius that Dumbledore had managed to keep what had happened to Penelope from becoming public knowledge. Of course the governors and the Ministry knew what was going on, but according to Lucius the headmaster had convinced the vast majority of them that it was a one off incident and he had everything under control. However, they were out to prove to everyone that Dumbledore wasn't in control of the situation, they were.

When they returned to school there was a noticeable change in the attitude of the staff. Before Christmas the staff had been visibly nervous and unsure of what was going on, but clearly over the holidays Dumbledore had convinced them that nothing further was going to happen. The extra patrols the staff had been doing before Christmas were still in place, but they could sense there was a lot less urgency about them. It was merely habit by this point and everyone could tell that none of the Professors expected to find anything untoward happening around the castle.

The trio waited until they'd been back at school for a week, before they decided to strike. Severus had given them a copy of the Professors patrolling schedule so they could pick the opportune moment to strike. After checking the schedules all three agreed that the Professor to target was Lockhart. It was be very easy for one of them to distract him, while the other two opened the chamber. And if Lockhart got into any trouble for not doing his patrols correctly, well none of them were overly fussed at that. They'd all agreed he was fairly useless, and they wouldn't be upset if he ended up in trouble.

"So who's doing what?" Harry asked. The trio were in their secret room in the library, making final arrangements, but they didn't have long as it was nearly dinnertime.

"Since we opened the chamber last time, I think it's only fair that Draco is involved this time," Hermione replied. "We just have to decide which of us will distract Lockhart."

"You could be better at that," Harry said. "Lockhart loves flattery, and I'm sure you could act all impressed like the other girls."

"He also likes fame, and you're perfect for that," Hermione shot back. "You could ask his advice on the perils of being famous."

"Yeah, but I'm not that famous really," Harry argued. "There was a lot of fuss last year when I started school, but I've kept out of the limelight. Besides, I've already made it clear to Lockhart I want no part in his search for fame and fortune."

"Fine, I'll do it," Hermione conceded with a dramatic sigh. "I'll distract Lockhart."

"What about getting away from Weasley?" Draco asked. "It's easy for me to slip away from my friends, but will you two be able to manage it?"

"I'll say I'm coming to the library," Hermione answered with an unconcerned shrug. She didn't have half as many problems getting away from Ron as the redhead was more concerned about sticking with Harry.

"I'll find some way of getting away," Harry vowed. "Last I saw of him, he was in the bathroom feeling queasy. If he's still feeling ill after dinner, it'll be easy to slip out for a while."

"You better think of a back-up plan just in case he's feeling better," Hermione said as she checked the time. "We have to get going. We'll meet up an hour after dinner in the Defence corridor. I'll then distract Lockhart while you two go and open the chamber."

With plans in place the trio snuck out of the secret room and exited the library. Draco left before Harry and Hermione, and headed straight down to the dungeons. The two Gryffindors headed up to Gryffindor Tower for Hermione to drop her bag off, before heading back down to the Great Hall along with their fellow housemates. Luckily for Harry, Ron was still feeling queasy and although he accompanied them to dinner, he ate very little.

"I think I'm heading to bed," Ron grumbled as they returned to Gryffindor Tower after dinner.

"Hey Harry, do you want to join us playing cards?" Dean called as Ron trudged up to bed.

"Yeah, I'll play for a bit, but I need to go and grab a book for Transfiguration later on," Harry said as he joined his friends beside the fire. "I'm sure I can slip out for ten minutes later on."

"Yeah, worry about it later," Seamus agreed as he dragged Neville into the game so they were a foursome.

Leaving the boys to play cards, Hermione headed up to her room for a while as she tried to think of a way to distract Lockhart. Searching through her homework, she hit on the perfect idea and got together everything she would need. Shortly before they were due to meet Draco, she grabbed her bag and headed down to the common room.

"I'm going to the library, if you want my help finding that book, Harry," Hermione called, finding Harry still ensconced in the card game.

"Yeah, that'll be great," Harry called back. "I'll just finish this hand and I'll be right with you."

"Okay, just catch me up," Hermione said as she exited the common room.

Hermione had made it halfway to the Defence corridor when Harry caught up with her. Together the pair made it to their destination without incident, and they quickly found Draco skulking in one of the deeper alcoves. Draco confirmed that Lockhart was still in his classroom, but his patrol was due to start any minute so they needed to get moving before they lost the chance to distract him.

"Here we go," Hermione said. "I'll distract Lockhart for as long as I can, but just in case it doesn't work, you two better get going."

Wishing her best friends luck, Hermione strode over to the Defence classroom and knocked on the door. Lockhart quickly answered the door, and beamed widely when he spotted Hermione.

"Miss Granger, how can I help you?"

"I was hoping I could interview you," Hermione replied. "We've got to write an assignment in History of Magic about a witch and wizard who have achieved great things in the wizarding world. After reading all your wonderful books, I decided you would be a wonderful candidate. I was just hoping you could give me further insight into all you've achieved."

From along the corridor, Harry and Draco exchanged eye rolls as Lockhart preened at Hermione's blatant flattery. Personally, the pair thought she was going slightly over the top, but the important thing was that Lockhart bought it. He quickly ushered Hermione into his classroom, and they clearly hear him say they would retire to his office where they could talk in more comfort.

"He really is pathetic," Draco snorted as the pair carefully began making their way to the girls' bathroom on the second floor. "He never once thought about the fact he's supposed to be doing patrols."

"I think a few of the Professors are slacking off to be fair," Harry replied. "Yesterday I spotted Flitwick and Sprout sitting chatting when Sprout was supposed to be patrolling. They're all convinced nothing more will happen."

"If only they knew," Draco said with a low chuckle.

Sharing a devious smirk with his best friend, Harry led the way to the bathroom they needed to enter. After checking there was no-one in sight, Harry pulled the incense burner from his bag and slid it into the bathroom. Without Hermione to check the coast was clear, the two boys had to be more cautious as they entered the bathroom, but they were quickly in place with the door charmed shut behind them and no sign of Myrtle.

"Let's get on with this," Harry said, making his way over to the appropriate sink. "Remember, don't look into its eyes."

"Don't worry, I'm not stupid," Draco replied. He would have loved to have gotten a good look at the basilisk they were releasing, but he knew the dangers far outweighed his desire to sneak a peek at the creature they were commanding. One wrong move, could result in his death or petrification, and Draco wasn't taking that risk.

Standing side by side, the two boys set about opening the chamber. Since they didn't know if Draco would actually be able to command the basilisk, they decided he would be the one to open the chamber. Taking a deep breath, Draco turned his thoughts to what Voldemort had taught him over the summer, and the words to open the chamber slithered naturally out of his mouth.

"Here she comes," Harry said, his excitement evident in his voice.

As the basilisk made its way out of the chamber, both Harry and Draco dropped their heads. With no risk of accidentally looking the basilisk in the eye, Harry gave the order for it go and have some more fun.

"Yes master," The basilisk hissed, before disappearing down a nearby toilet.

Even though Draco was able to talk Parseltongue because of the help Voldemort had given him, he wasn't attuned enough to hear the basilisk as she roamed the school. Harry, however, could keep more in tune with the basilisk and when it was nearby he could hear it as it slithered through the pipes looking for a target. However, when the basilisk travelled a bit further afield, Harry was just as much in the dark as Draco.

"She's coming back," Harry announced after almost fifteen minutes.

"Is it done?" Draco asked.

"I assume so," Harry replied with a shrug. "We'll find out in a minute."

Less than a minute later the basilisk returned and confirmed there was a new victim.

"Good job," Harry said with a grin as the basilisk headed back down into the chamber.

"That was so cool," Draco enthused when the chamber sealed itself back up with a few words from Harry. "I wonder who she got."

"I guess we'll have to wait and see," Harry said as they prepared to leave the bathroom.

After Draco had checked there was no-one outside in the corridor, Harry doused the incense and he and Draco left the bathroom at a sprint. Darting into a nearby alcove, they stopped to catch their breath as they discussed their next move. Hermione had told them to go straight back to the dorms when they'd finished, but they were wondering if they should save her from Lockhart. Her plan of distracting him had worked perfectly, but it was also a plan that could result in her struggling to get away from the self-publicising Defence Professor.

Deciding to rescue their friend, the pair made their way back to the Defence corridor. Opening the door to the classroom opposite Lockhart's, Draco and Harry pointed their wands at the chairs that were stacked up against the back wall. With identical grins, they cast a spell that sent the chair noisily tumbling to the floor, before turning and sprinting around the corner. Peeking around the corner, they spotted a flustered Lockhart emerging from his classroom. Hermione followed him, and both Harry and Draco spotted her eyes flicking in their direction.

"Look at the time Professor," Hermione said, pretending she'd only just noticed what time it was. "I better get back to Gryffindor Tower, curfew is in just over an hour."

"So it is," Lockhart remarked, paling as he checked the time and realised he'd missed most of his patrols.

"Bye Professor, and thanks for the help," Hermione called as she set off to where Harry and Draco were hiding.

Turning the corner, she dragged the pair into a nearby alcove. After thanking them for saving her from Lockhart, she checked everything had gone okay, before her and Harry parted ways with Draco and they all made their way back to their respective common rooms.

When Harry and Hermione re-entered Gryffindor Tower, they slipped back in with their friends easily enough and no-one questioned their supposed trip to the library. As they settled down for the evening, they wondered who the latest victim was and when they would hear about it.

As it turned out, they got the answers they were looking for sooner than they'd expected. Within ten minutes of them arriving back at Gryffindor Tower, they became aware of a group of first years stalking backwards and forwards between the door and the corner as they seemingly checked for something or someone.

"What's going on with that lot?" Dean asked with a frown. "They're making me dizzy, jumping up and down all the time."

Hermione shrugged in response, but her curiosity was well and truly piqued along with half of Gryffindor Tower. Percy Weasley was one of those people wondering what was going on, and he approached the first years to see what the problem was. It soon transpired that one of their friends, Colin Creevey, had gone down to the Black Lake to take some pictures and hadn't returned to Gryffindor Tower. A few of his friends had gone looking for him and found no sign of him, and since it was nearing curfew they were worried in case he was going to get into trouble for being out late.

"I'll go and see what I can do," Percy said to Colin's friends.

After leaving the common room, Percy was gone for nearly half an hour, and when he returned he had a sombre looking McGonagall with him. Instantly everyone in Gryffindor Tower knew something bad had happened, and the room quickly fell silent.

"I have to inform you that Colin Creevey is in the hospital wing," McGonagall said quietly. "He was found petrified. Everyone is to remain in Gryffindor Tower this evening, and Professor Dumbledore will address the entire school tomorrow."

After fielding a few questions, and reassuring a few worried people they were safe, McGonagall exited Gryffindor Tower. The instant she was gone, the gossip began and for the rest of the night all anyone could talk about was Colin and the fact the chamber had yet again been opened.


	10. Chapter 10

Following the second attack on a student, things were changed dramatically at Hogwarts. The morning after Colin was found, Dumbledore addressed the entire school and tried to allay people's worries. As part of the attempt to make students feel safer a strict curfew was put in place and Professors were to escort their students to their next classes. Of course the new rules led to longer breaks between lessons, but Dumbledore was adamant the new rules were going to be kept in place.

The new rules also made it difficult for Hermione and Harry to meet up with Draco. Their free time was sorely lacking now, and even when they were in the library there was always a Professor present with Madam Pince. The only time they did manage to at least speak was when Severus was the Professor in the library. In that time, they learnt that Colin had been found with his camera and Dumbledore had hoped that he'd pictured his attacker. Unfortunately for Dumbledore, the film had exploded when he'd opened the camera. As for Lockhart, he wasn't in any trouble for not doing his patrols as he hadn't actually confessed his laxity to the headmaster. Dumbledore was under the impression that Lockhart had been patrolling the school and it was just unfortunate he'd seen nothing.

After almost two weeks following the new school rules, tensions were still as high as ever. A portion of the student body were seriously worried for their safety, and nothing the Professors could say eased their worries any. If anything the extra precautions Dumbledore had put in place only made the students more wary. It would appear they couldn't even roam the corridors without being in danger, and naturally people were nervous.

In one Defence against the Dark Arts lesson, Dean voiced his concerns to Lockhart. As the Defence Professor, Lockhart was the natural person for the students to turn to. Of course, Hermione, Harry and Draco didn't think he'd be able to help a jot, but it would be interesting to see what he would come up with.

"Please sir," Dean begged. "Just teach us something we can use to protect ourselves from a mystery attacker."

"I know how to avoid being attacked," Theo boasted loudly.

"Ah Mr Nott, would you like to share your pearls of wisdom," Lockhart urged, pleased to have the limelight on someone other than himself.

"I avoid being attacked by not being a muggleborn," Theo answered with a smirk. "Everyone knows the creature in the chamber is targeting muggleborns. They're the only ones in danger. The rest of us don't need protection."

"Well not all of us are pureblood brats," Dean shot back at Theo. "Some of us have no control over who our parents are."

"Muggleborns or not, shouldn't we all be able to protect ourselves?" Seamus questioned. "So far, we haven't really learnt any practical defence magic."

"Finnegan has a point," Draco said with a shrug. "In fact, we haven't learnt anything in this lesson."

"Then maybe you are not paying attention, Mr Malfoy," Lockhart snapped. "I'm sure the rest of the class will agree they've all learnt something this year."

Much to Lockhart's dismay, the majority of the class voiced the opinion that they'd learnt nothing. The only ones not complaining were the girls who gazed dreamily at the Defence Professor.

"Partner up and we'll run through some simple disarming tactics," Lockhart muttered.

Hermione turned to partner up with Harry, but found that Ron had already grabbed him. Shooting daggers at the back of Ron's head, Hermione turned to her other side and partnered up with Neville. At the back of the room, Draco had partnered up with Blaise, while Theo was with Daphne.

"Now we begin," Lockhart announced. "Everyone get out their wands."

The entire class followed Lockhart's instructions and pulled out their wands. Turning back to the Defence Professor, they watched as he swirled his wand around in a ludicrous fashion as he sprouted some daft incantation. After demonstrating his technique, he instructed the students to try it one half of their pair at a time. Obviously, the spell failed and no-one disarmed their opponent using Lockhart's spell.

"Keep trying, these things take time," Lockhart urged.

"This is ridiculous," Draco complained loudly, before turning to Blaise and giving him a wicked smirk. "Expelliarmus!"

Blaise's wand flew clean out of his hand, and landed in the outstretched hand of his best friend. The action had caught the attention of the rest of the class, and they all applauded. Even the Gryffindors had to admit the result was more impressive than anything Lockhart had come up with.

"Expelliarmus can work," Lockhart said begrudgingly. "But it does lack flair. If you persevere you'll find my spell works just as well."

"I'm trying it Draco's way," Theo announced. Turning to Daphne, he promptly disarmed her using the spell Draco had used.

Within minutes cries of Expelliarmus could be heard around the classroom as everyone tried using the preferred method of disarming an opponent. By the end of the lesson, everyone had managed to disarm their opponent at least once. Some people like Draco, Hermione and Harry had managed it on their first attempt, but others like Neville, Crabbe and Goyle had to work a bit harder. But even they got it in the end, and everyone left the classroom feeling proud of themselves.

"Can you believe Malfoy's a better teacher than Lockhart," Harry said with a laugh as he headed to the Great Hall for lunch with Hermione and Ron.

"Anyone's a better teacher than Lockhart," Hermione retorted. "The man's an imbecile."

"And Malfoy didn't really do much," Ron added. "He only knew one basic spell."

"Did you know the spell?" Hermione asked pointedly. She'd known the correct spell to use to disarm someone, as had Harry, but she wasn't sure if Ron would have known. Even though Expelliarmus was a basic spell, it hadn't been in any of their books so far and Ron wasn't the type to look to the future to see what they were going to be learning in other years.

"Not exactly," Ron admitted, turning slightly red around the ears. "I knew Lockhart was just being an idiot, but I couldn't remember the actual spell."

"I don't suppose it matters who mentioned the spell," Harry said, eager to keep the peace as he wasn't in the mood to referee a slanging match between Hermione and Ron. "The important thing is we now know something new. At least we can disarm someone threatening us."

"Yeah, not that's it's going to do much good against the creature from the chamber," Hermione retorted.

"Why not?" Ron asked with a frown.

"The clue is in the word creature," Hermione replied. "Creatures don't use wands."

Leaving Ron to digest that what he'd just learnt wouldn't save him from the creature from the Chamber, Hermione settled down to enjoy her lunch.

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

A few weeks later, Dumbledore relaxed a few of the new rules. There was no longer a Professor in the library when the students were using it, and they no longer had to walk each of their classes to their next lesson. However, curfew was still a lot earlier than usual, meaning Harry, Hermione and Draco still only had a limited time they could meet.

Eager to progress their plan, the trio had arranged to try and meet up in their secret room via a hurried conversation between Hermione and Draco in the potions cupboard. On the evening in question, Draco made an excuse to his friends after dinner and headed to the library. Entering the library, he frowned when he spotted Harry sitting at a table, writing in his grandfather's diary. Draco's confusion at seeing Harry sitting in the main part of the library rather than the secret room, was explained when he ventured further into the room and spotted the Weasley girl sitting at the next desk, her attention firmly on Harry.

"Poor sod," Draco muttered as he slunk into the bookshelves.

Checking there was no-one watching him, Draco made his way to the entrance to the secret room. Sliding inside the room, he wasn't surprised to find Hermione already in residence. His friend was sitting with her homework in front of her, and when she looked up, she offered him a warm smile.

"I don't suppose you've seen Harry, have you?" She asked as Draco settled down beside her. "I thought he was right behind me, but I haven't seen him."

"He's in the main body of the library," Draco answered. "But I don't think he can get away. The little She-Weasel has her greedy eyes all over him. It looks like poor Harry has earned himself a stalker."

"She's worse than Ron," Hermione said with a frustrated sigh. "Can you believe she's got such a crush on Harry at eleven years old? Although from what Ron said, her obsession started last year."

"Tart," Draco hissed, causing Hermione to laugh at him. "But seriously, is she going to cause problems for us? Bloody Weasley's bad enough, now Harry has his sister to contend with."

"I don't know, she could prove problematic in the future," Hermione replied. "I'm just hoping she's going to forget about Harry in time."

"How much time?" Draco questioned. "If she's this obsessed at eleven, she might only get worse. Has Harry been encouraging her?"

"Of course he hasn't, he can't stand her," Hermione replied. "She's just too thick-headed to get the message."

"Ah, typical Weasley then," Draco said with a smirk.

"Since Harry's stuck outside, we should get on with planning our next move," Hermione said. "Although, it is our turn to open the chamber. Do you have any ideas when we can do it?"

"Actually, I do," Draco replied. "Both attacks have happened on an evening, so the Professors are doing their extra patrols at that time. I say we strike on a morning. We could get up early and find a victim before breakfast."

"That's genius," Hermione said with a grin. "There's always students up early. We're bound to catch one of them."

"Exactly," Draco replied. "So when do you want to strike?"

"How about Friday?" Hermione suggested.

"Friday it is then," Draco said.

With a day to strike settled, the pair made a few more arrangements before settling down to chat for a while before they had to part ways and head back to their respective house dorms.

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

On Friday morning, Draco and Hermione met up half an hour before breakfast in an alcove near to the girls' bathroom. After checking the coast was clear, the pair used the incense burner to safely enter the bathroom. Like the previous two outings, they quickly opened the chamber and sent the basilisk off to have some fun. Ten minutes later, the basilisk returned and once it was back down in the chamber, Hermione shut the chamber once again.

"Let the fun begin," She said, giving Draco a grin before they exited the bathroom.

With each of them dying to see who the next victim was, they parted ways and joined their friends for breakfast. Luckily neither set of friends asked questions about why Draco and Hermione were up as early as they were all used to it. It may have been the first time the pair had met up to cause trouble, but it wasn't the first time they'd met up before breakfast.

"How did it go?" Harry hissed to Hermione.

"Perfect," Hermione replied with a smile. "Let's just wait for the fun to begin."

They didn't have to wait very long, before a loud, high pitched scream was heard coming from nearby. Immediately everyone was on their feet, but unfortunately, Dumbledore charmed the doors shut before anyone was able to leave.

"No-one is to leave the Great Hall," He declared as he made his way to the doors with the other Professors.

Opening the doors, Dumbledore slipped out with a few Professors, while the others remained behind in the Great Hall. Since leaving wasn't an option, everyone returned to their seats to finish their breakfast.

"What do you think it is?" Neville asked, nervously eyeing the door. "Another victim?"

"Most likely," Ron replied with a shrug. "What else is there to be screaming about?"

"This might be the answer," Harry said, gesturing to where the door was opening.

Instead of Dumbledore and the Professors, it was a couple of second year Hufflepuffs, Zacharias Smith and Hannah Abbott, that entered the room. Both Zacharias and Hannah looked deathly pale as they quietly spoke to the Professors at the door before joining their friends at the Hufflepuff table.

Within five minutes of Zacharias and Hannah arriving, word had spread about what had happened. The pair had found Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick petrified just outside of the library.

"Nick was also petrified?" Ron questioned with a frown. "What can petrify a ghost?"

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Hermione said ominously. "And have you noticed, this attack is much nearer to the second one. This is escalating quickly."

"I wonder what the next step will be," Dean said with a shiver.

"Death," Theo contributed from right behind them at the Slytherin table. "So far everyone has been lucky they're only petrified, but surely the next step is death. After all, that's what the creatures there to do. Get rid of the mudbloods."

"Bugger off Nott," Harry snapped, just as the doors to the Great Hall opened once again and a serious looking Dumbledore entered the room.

"I regret to inform you all, we have another victim," Dumbledore announced. "I want you all to return to your house dormitories, classes are cancelled for the day. No-one is to leave their dorms without express permission of their head of house."

"This sounds serious," Harry muttered as they got up and joined the crush leaving the Great Hall. "Do you think they're going to shut the school?"

"I don't know," Hermione replied, wishing she could talk to her brother.

She really wanted an inside track on what was happening, but it didn't look like she was going to get one today. Instead, she had to make do with returning to Gryffindor Tower and hoping that the adults had the situation in hand. Hopefully if things were so serious, Severus would get in touch with Lucius and he would infiltrate his plan with Hagrid. Although personally, Hermione was hoping they wouldn't have to use that card just yet. She was hoping for more fun with the chamber before they had to sacrifice Hagrid and shut the fun down completely.


	11. Chapter 11

Much to Hermione's frustration, they had to stay up in Gryffindor tower for the entire weekend following Justin's petrification. For three whole days, she was stuck up in Gryffindor Tower without a clue as to what was going on in the rest of the school. All McGonagall had told the students was that things were in hand, and they didn't have to worry.

As she tried to distract herself from her curiosity, Hermione ended up finishing all her homework assignments. She even finished some stuff that wasn't due in for several weeks. Hermione encouraged Harry to try and do the same, but he barely got a moments peace between Ron and Ginny hijacking his attention. Ron was constantly trying to get Harry to play chess or exploding snap, and Ginny just hung around like a bad smell, staring longingly at Harry.

Finally after three days stuck in their respective dorms, the students were allowed to head down to the Great Hall for breakfast on Monday morning. Classes were also due to be restated again, much to Hermione's pleasure and several people's displeasure.

"I was hoping for more free time," Ron said as they settled down to eat breakfast.

"Any more free time and it wouldn't have been worth keeping the school open," Hermione retorted. "We're here to get an education, and if Hogwarts isn't providing one, there's no point to it being open."

"Okay, there's no need to be so touchy," Ron muttered. "I was just saying another day off would be appreciated."

"Not by all of us," Hermione replied. "Some of us are actually keen to get back to work."

"Of course you are," Ron said, rolling his eyes at Hermione.

Hermione glared at Ron, but before she could respond to his remark, Harry raised his hands and called for a truce. Acknowledging Harry's warning look, Hermione apologised to Ron as she conceded that she'd been a bit touchy. Being cooped up for the weekend hadn't helped her mood and she was finding it harder than normal to hide her true nature. Most of the time she had the act of the perfect little goody-goody off to a fine art, but every now and again she struggled with the pretence.

Before the students left the Great Hall, Dumbledore gave a brief speech urging them to carry on as normal. Dumbledore didn't explain any of what had been happening over the weekend, but he reassured the students they were safe. However, judging by the sceptical looks that filled the Great Hall, people were starting to lose faith in the headmaster. After all, he'd already promised them they'd be safe and there'd been more attacks since then.

"Did you see that reaction?" Harry whispered to Hermione as they left the Great Hall. They'd fallen slightly behind Ron, who was walking with Dean, Seamus and Neville, so they could talk. "No-one thinks Dumbledore has the situation under control."

"That's because he doesn't," Hermione replied. "I'll bet you, he's still clueless about the attacks."

"I just wish there was some way to find out," Harry said. "I'm dying to know what we missed stuck up in Gryffindor Tower."

Hermione nodded her agreement, but didn't have a chance to respond as they reached Charms, the first lesson of the day. Settling down in class, their curiosity about the chamber had to wait as they had a full day of lessons to get through. Throughout the day several people asked questions about the chamber, but none of the staff were giving anything away. The candour after the first attack had gone, and none of the Professors would be drawn into discussing recent events.

The last lesson of the day was Potions, and no-one even tried asking Severus about the chamber. Obviously the Gryffindors knew the formidable Head of Slytherin wouldn't tell them anything, but even the Slytherins knew they would get nowhere in asking about the chamber. Instead, Potions was conducted in practical silence, with the students doing written work about the latest potion they were learning about while Severus marked the homework he collected at the beginning of the class.

Near the end of the lesson, Severus handed back the homework. As he did so, he remarked on everyone's work, whether he was praising them or criticising them. Obviously Ron got a critical remark, with Severus ordering him to put more effort into his work.

"It's very slapdash," He said, before turning to Harry. "And you, I've spoken to you before about doing your own work. You and Miss Granger stay behind, I want to talk to pair of you."

Since Hermione and Harry were very aware that their work wasn't the same, as Hermione never helped Harry with Potions as he was just as capable as her at the subject, they knew Severus wanted to talk to them for another reason. They were just hoping it wasn't bad news.

"I'll see you guys back in Gryffindor Tower," Ron said as the bell for the end of class went and he gathered up his things. "Good luck with Snape."

"Thanks, we'll need it," Harry replied, playing along with the fact that they were in trouble.

Hermione and Harry remained in the seats as the rest of the class filed out. Of course the Slytherins couldn't resist throwing the odd insult their way as they departed the classroom. Once the classroom was empty, Severus shut the door and used a few spells to ensure no-one could eavesdrop on them.

"What's going on?" Harry asked his father as Severus pulled up a chair opposite the pair.

"I just want to fill you in on what happened over the weekend," Severus replied. "The school was searched, several times, for any sign of the Chamber of Secrets."

"Was it found?" Hermione asked, although she was confident the answer would be no.

"Of course not," Severus replied with a dismissive snort. "But Dumbledore's erected several warning wards around the school. I don't know where they all are, so I can't warn you where to find them and how to avoid them. We think that for the time being, you should lay off opening the chamber again. The Ministry are starting to get involved, along with the governors, and they're wanting answers. Opening the chamber again so soon will bring unwanted attention on us. I don't want either of you getting into trouble, is that understood?"

"Yeah, we understand," Harry replied.

"Hermione?" Severus turned to his sister, knowing she was the more rebellious of the two. "You're to do nothing else, until I say it's safe. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Hermione answered with a sigh. "But we're just starting to enjoy ourselves."

"The whole point of this was to have some fun and potentially get rid of Dumbledore, and so far we're heading in the right direction," Severus said. "The staff are starting to question Dumbledore, and I know Lucius is stirring up trouble with both the Ministry and the governors. A few weeks of quiet, won't hurt anyone."

"But another quick attack will add more pressure to Dumbledore," Hermione argued.

"It will," Severus agreed. "But it's not worth the risk. With all these security features around, you could get caught and that's just not an option. My word is final, Hermione. Until I say so, the chamber remains shut."

"Yes Severus," Hermione replied, knowing her brother wasn't going to be swayed by her protests. Sometimes she could charm him into seeing things her way, but she knew this wasn't one of those times.

"And I've told Draco the exact same thing," He added. "Now the three of you all know the situation. If any of you disobeys, there'll be trouble."

"We won't," Harry vowed.

"I'm trusting you to keep Hermione and Draco in check," Severus whispered to his son. "You know Hermione can be impulsive, and she's charming enough to sweet talk Draco into joining her in her trouble making schemes."

"I am here you know," Hermione said in indignation, glaring at her brother and nephew. "And I'm perfectly capable of following orders. Even ones I don't like."

"I know, but it never hurts to cover all bases," Severus replied, shooting his annoyed sister a smirk. "Now I think it's time the pair of you got back to Gryffindor Tower. We don't want people asking too many questions about why you're down here."

"What do we say when Ron asks if we have detention?" Harry asked.

"Tell him, not this time but you both got a stern warning," Severus replied.

Leaving Severus's classroom, Harry and Hermione headed up to Gryffindor Tower. As soon as they entered the common room they were grabbed by Ron, who questioned them about what had happened. Harry repeated what Severus had told him to say and told Ron they just got a stern talking to and got away with receiving detentions.

"You're so lucky," Ron said as he checked his watch. "Oh, it's nearly dinner time. I'm starving."

"You're always starving," Hermione retorted, a bit sharper than she'd intended.

Ron gave Hermione a hurtful look, before he strode out of the common room. Wincing at her carelessness, Hermione took off after Ron with Harry at her side. By the time they reached the Great Hall, they'd caught up to Ron and Hermione had apologised. Luckily Ron was easy to pacify, and the fact he was about to sit down and eat was enough to ensure there was no hard feelings between him and Hermione.

After dinner, during which Hermione was careful not to snap at Ron again, the trio returned to Gryffindor Tower. While Hermione settled down to play chess with Ron in an attempt to make sure the tension between them didn't escalate, Harry headed upstairs to grab his grandfather's diary. However, when he opened the drawer in his bedside table, he found no sign of the little blue book. Hoping he'd just forgotten to remove it from his bag last time he'd been using it in the library, Harry emptied his bag onto his bed. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the book in his bag, or his trunk, which he also searched through. After tearing the boys' dorms apart, a worried Harry headed back down to the common room to see if the diary was down there for some reason.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, noticing the way Harry was scouring the room.

"I've lost my diary," Harry said, giving Hermione a pointed look so she would know exactly which diary he meant.

"Are you sure you haven't just misplaced it?" Ron asked, barely glancing up from the chessboard.

"No," Harry replied. "It was in my bedside table, I know it was."

"I'll help you look again," Hermione said as she finished up her game of chess with Ron.

Unfortunately, the pair searched all of Gryffindor Tower and came up with nothing. The diary had gone. Someone had clearly taken it from Harry's bedside table. The question was who had taken the diary and why?

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

Several weeks later and the missing diary was still causing concern. After doing all they could to find the diary, Harry and Hermione confided in Severus and Draco. Severus even tried tracking the diary using magic, but when that didn't work he got in touch with Voldemort and found it had spells on it to make it untraceable. With magic not helping them, all they could do was continue to search manually and look for someone using the diary. Unfortunately neither way yielded results, and with the diary still missing it was decided it was too risky to risk opening the chamber again.

By the final days of the Easter holidays, Hermione was coming to accept that their fun was over for the year. Whether or not they had to throw Hagrid to the wolves remained to be seen, but she was confident they wouldn't be opening the chamber anymore. Chances were, Dumbledore would wriggle out of trouble and remain headmaster, despite the attacks that had taken place under his management.

On the last day of the Easter holidays, Hermione had been studying in the library before she decided to take a break. Packing her bag, she left the library and headed towards the courtyard. Reaching the corridors surrounding the courtyard, Hermione poked her head through one of the windows to see if she could see Harry anywhere. Hermione had just spotted him over the far side of the courtyard with Ron when the wind blew a small grain of gravel into her eye.

Swearing quietly, Hermione pulled her head back inside the castle and tried to remove the grain of gravel from her eye via blinking. When that didn't work, she rummaged through her bag and found a mirror. Flicking open her pocket mirror, she carefully tried to see the gravel in her eye and remove it. After a few minutes, Hermione was still trying to remove the gravel. Just as she was thinking she would have to just go to Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing, she heard a noise behind her, followed by a low hiss.

Hermione immediately froze as her mind tried to process what she'd heard. She would have sworn the Basilisk was behind her, but that was impossible. They'd all agreed not to open the chamber, and no-one else in school had the ability. All of a sudden, Hermione remembered her father's diary and everything fell into place. Whoever had taken the diary had discovered how to open the chamber, and for some reason they'd done just that.

Confident it was the Basilisk behind her, Hermione opened her mouth to order it to return to the chamber. Unfortunately, as she did so, her gaze fell to the mirror in her hand and she was confronted with two blazing yellow eyes. Immediately, Hermione's words died in her mouth and everything went black as she toppled over to the floor in a heap, her mirror still clutched in her hands and her face still frozen in utter shock.


	12. Chapter 12

As he usually did, Severus used the Easter holidays as a chance to have a break from the students. Unlike Christmas he didn't go home, but he did spend the majority of his time in his private quarters. Most of the time he read, but sometimes he spent his days looking through old pictures and reminiscing about the past. He had no pictures of Lily from the brief time they were together, but he had plenty of her when they were children.

Over the course of the holidays, both Harry and Hermione had snuck down to the dungeons to spend a few hours with him, but he hadn't seen either of them for a few days. They were both actually still worrying about Voldemort's missing diary, and Severus had admit it's theft had him worried as well. Harry was convinced the book had been taken from his bedside drawer, which meant if whoever had the diary figured out what it was, they would know Harry had been in possession of it. They just had to hope that whoever had stolen the diary didn't connect a teenager called Tom to the Dark Lord everyone had heard of.

By the last day of the Easter holidays, Severus was reluctantly preparing to get back to normal. Turning his mind back to his work, he left his private quarters and headed into his office to check everything was in hand. He then turned his attention to the classroom, checking the small potions cupboard in the room had everything the students would require for upcoming lessons.

After an hour of straightening the potions cupboard, Severus became aware of a lot of noise outside the classroom. The students had to pass the classroom to get to the dorms, so a bit of noise was usual, but this sounded like the whole of Slytherin were outside. Pulling open the door to his classroom, Severus frowned at the amount of students passing by, all talking merrily about something.

"What's going on?" He asked a nearby student.

"We've all been sent to our dorms," The student replied. "It's happened again. There's been another student petrified."

Severus cursed silently as he allowed the student to carry on towards the dorms. He'd explicitly told Hermione, Harry and Draco not to open the chamber again, and it looked like they'd disobeyed him. Severus was rather surprised at the trio's actions as last time he'd spoken to Hermione she'd seemed resigned to the fact the fun with the chamber was over.

"Get moving," Severus barked impatiently at the students as he exited his classroom. Even though Dumbledore hadn't called for him, no doubt he would, so it wouldn't hurt to head up to the main body of the school to see where all the action was.

As he pushed through the crowds of gossiping students, he suddenly got his eye on Draco. Draco was walking with his two friends, Blaise and Theo. Blaise and Theo were gossiping away merrily, but Draco was merely following them, not saying a word. Severus decided that Draco was probably feeling guilty for going against orders and opening the chamber.

"Draco," Severus called, drawing the blond's attention to him. When Draco looked over at him, Severus was shocked to his grey eyes were haunted by something. "Come here, I want to talk to you about something. Nott, Zabini, get off to the dorms."

Severus waited until Draco had crossed the corridor, before grabbing hold of his shirt and hauling him into a deserted classroom. Slamming the door shut, he silenced it before rounding on the twelve year old.

"How could you? I told you not to open the chamber. I can't believe you would disobey me. Who was it that persuaded you to open the chamber? Hermione?"

"We didn't open the chamber," Draco said in a shaking voice. "It wasn't us."

Draco's tone of voice had Severus pausing in his fury. It didn't sound as though Draco was regretting his actions, it sounded like he was doing everything he could to stop himself from crying.

"What's wrong, Draco?"

"Hermione," Draco whispered. "She's been petrified."

For a second, Severus's world spun at Draco's revelation. Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he asked Draco to tell him what he knew. Unfortunately Draco didn't know much, all he could tell Severus was that he'd been down beside the Black Lake with Blaise and Theo when word began to spread that another student had been found petrified. It was only when they returned to the castle and were ordered back to their dorms that the rumours circulating around revealed the student in question was Hermione, and she'd been found by Professor McGonagall.

"You best get back to the dorms," Severus said quietly. "I'll go and see what's going on."

"She will be okay, won't she?" Draco asked.

Severus placed a reassuring hand on Draco's shoulder and gave him what was hopefully a positive smile. "She'll be fine."

Parting ways with Draco, Severus rushed out of the dungeons and into the main body of the school. As he entered the main entrance hall he ran into Filius Flitwick, knocking the poor man off his feet.

"I'm sorry Filius," Severus said as he helped his fellow Professor to his feet. "I've just heard. Is it true?"

"Yes," Flitwick replied with a solemn nod. "I was just coming to get you. All the students are being sent back to their dorms, and Albus wants to see the staff in the staff room."

"Is it really Hermione Granger who's being petrified?" Severus checked, praying that Draco had gotten it wrong and his little sister was perfectly fine.

"I'm afraid so," Flitwick replied. "Albus is in the hospital wing with her friends. He's allowed them to see her, before they return to their dorms. I just hope Poppy and Pomona can make their antidote soon."

"Let's hope so," Severus replied absentmindedly. He was more worried about how he would get in to see Hermione as he couldn't really turn up at the hospital wing and ask to see her without raising suspicions.

However, before he could find a way to see his sister, he had to attend a staff meeting. Even though it was the last thing he wanted to do, Severus accompanied Flitwick to the staff room. When they entered the room a few members of staff were already present, and within ten minutes everyone else arrived as well.

"This situation is getting out of hand," Dumbledore announced. "We now have four students petrified in the hospital wing. I've been able to hold off on the Ministry shutting us down, but I'm not sure how much longer I can do that for. Miss Granger's accident might be the final straw."

"Maybe it's for the best," McGonagall said quietly. "I'm not sure we can say the students are safe anymore."

"I'm hoping to prove that's not true," Dumbledore said. "I want to keep the students confined to their dorms for another few days. Last time we set a pile of wards, and we need to check if any of them have been triggered. I'm hoping we can use the information to narrow down the area of the school where the chamber is."

"Can you convince the Ministry everything's okay for another few days?" Severus asked.

"I don't plan on telling the Ministry about Miss Granger just yet," Dumbledore admitted. "If we're no further forward in a week, I'll contact Cornelius and fill him in on what's happened."

"And what about the cure for the petrified students?" McGonagall asked. "Are we any nearer to getting them knocked up?"

"The mandrakes still need another few weeks to fully mature," Sprout answered. "Then we can make the remedy, which takes another couple of weeks."

"So we're talking a month at the earliest," Severus said, unimpressed by how long it had taken to pull an antidote together. Although he had to admit mandrakes were hard to grow, and Sprout was one of the only herbologists who was capable of growing them.

"Yes," Sprout replied with a nod. "It's not ideal, but in a way we're lucky I was growing mandrakes this year. I don't grow them every year."

"We still need to find this chamber, or at least make sure it can't be opened again," McGonagall said. "Until we do one of those things, the school isn't safe."

"I know Minerva," Dumbledore said with a weary sigh as he removed his glasses and rubbed at his forehead. "But we must do our best to put on a brave face. I want each Head of House to pay a visit to their respective houses and let the students know they'll be remaining in lockdown for a few days. Hopefully in that time we can make some progress."

Leaving the classroom with the other Professors, Severus returned to the dungeons and made his way to the Slytherin common room. When he entered the common room it was awash with noise, but silence soon fell as the students realised he was there. Quickly Severus explained the situation, which was met by grumbling from almost everyone.

While the rest of the students were complaining, Draco darted over to Severus and gave him a look that asked how Hermione was doing. Surrounded be so many Slytherins, it wasn't advisable for them to talk, but Severus understood what his godson wanted to know.

"I don't know yet," He replied. "I need a distraction for a certain witch."

Draco nodded in understanding and gave Severus a nod that said he would sort it. Confident Draco would give him what he needed, Severus connected the fire in the common room to his office and told the seventh year prefects to contact him if they needed anything. He then left the common room, hoping Draco would come through for him sooner rather than later.

Fifteen minutes later, Severus was mentally praising his godson as he got a message from one of the prefects that Vincent Crabbe was throwing up all over the place. Telling the prefect to try and get him up into his room or the bathrooms, Severus hurried off to get Madam Pomfrey. Walking through the school he encountered no-one, and wondered just what Dumbledore was doing to try and find the chamber and prove the school was safe.

"Madam Pomfrey, you're needed down in the dungeons," Severus said as he entered the hospital wing and found the medi-witch straightening the empty beds. The occupied beds were all at the far side of the room, and all had the curtains drawn around them. "Vincent Crabbe is projectile vomiting."

"It'll be too many sweets," Madam Pomfrey tutted. "I've warned him before about overeating."

"You know boys, they never listen," Severus replied with a shrug.

"Especially Slytherins," Madam Pomfrey retorted. "I don't suppose you could stay here, could you, Severus? I know the patients are all unresponsive, but I don't like to leave them."

"I'll stay here until you get back," Severus vowed.

Thanking the Potions Professor, Madam Pomfrey grabbed her medical bag and bustled off to the dungeons. The second she was gone, Severus made sure the doors were firmly closed before he headed over to his sister's bedside. When he pulled back the curtains surrounding Hermione's bed, he couldn't help but gasp at the sight of his petrified sister. She was normally so vibrant and full of life, and now she was lying as still as stone.

"This shouldn't have happened, Hermione," He muttered, brushing at her soft curls.

He didn't blame Hermione, Harry and Draco for the mess in the slightest, his blame was aimed directly at the adults, including himself. They'd been so caught up in causing trouble for Dumbledore that they'd forgotten they were dealing with three children. Hermione was only thirteen, and the boys were both still twelve. They were far too young to be messing around with something as dangerous as the Chamber of Secrets, and Severus was kicking himself for ever agreeing to go along with his father's plans. He need to speak to his father and remind him that Hermione, Harry and Draco were only children. They may have all been wiser than their years, but they were still children, and now Hermione had been hurt.

"You'll be fine sweetheart," Severus whispered to Hermione. Dropping a quick kiss to her forehead, he backed away and pulled the curtains back around her bed.

By the time Madam Pomfrey returned five minutes later, Severus was sitting on a chair on the other side of the room to his sister. The emotion that had been visible on his face as he checked on his sister was gone, and he knew to most people he would seem cold and indifferent. Madam Pomfrey spent a few minutes reassuring him that Crabbe had stopped vomiting and was safely tucked up in bed for the night, before thanking him for staying in the hospital wing.

Leaving the hospital wing, Severus headed back down to his office. Entering his private dorms, he securely locked the door behind him and did something he rarely did during term time, he flooed to his father's house. It was time to talk to his father, and make him see that they'd put Hermione in danger by letting her, Harry and Draco mess around with the chamber.

When he arrived at his father's house, Severus found Voldemort and Beth settled in the front room. Taking a seat, he informed them of Hermione's condition. Of course they both wanted to go rushing to the school, but Severus talked them out of it. Rushing up to the school would blow their cover completely, and they had to decide if it was worth it before they acted so rashly.

"Why haven't I been told?" Beth demanded. "The school know me as Hermione's mother. They could have sent me an owl, or contacted me in another way. The wards around the muggle house we used at the start of last year are in place, so I would have known if anyone had tried to contact me there."

"I don't think Dumbledore's told any of the parents," Severus replied. He didn't know for sure as none of the students were in his house, but he certainly hadn't seen any worried parents up at the school.

"Can they cure her?" Voldemort demanded. "Because if they can't, I want her out of there. I don't care if Dumbledore knows who she is, or who you and Harry are. If my daughter isn't safe, we're dumping this charade right now."

"The antidote will be ready in about a month," Severus told his father. "And I would trust Pomona Sprout to produce the best mandrakes. I think it's best for Hermione if she stays where she is."

"Okay, we'll leave her," Voldemort said reluctantly. "We trust you to look after her, Severus."

"I will," Severus vowed, wishing he'd done a better job in the first place. "But we need to do something about the chamber. Draco swears they didn't open it, which means whoever has the diary did. Unless we find the diary, the school isn't safe."

"We only need to buy ourselves a month," Voldemort said thoughtfully. "I'll speak to Lucius, and we'll arrange to have that oaf, Hagrid arrested. Hopefully at the same time we can get Dumbledore sacked. I wonder if Harry can get to the chamber and order the basilisk not to leave the chamber again. Even if someone has the diary and is using it to open the chamber, they won't be able to override an order given directly from an heir of Slytherin."

"We don't need Harry," Severus said. He knew it would be impossible to speak to his son while the lockdown was in place, and even afterwards it would likely be rather hard to achieve. "I can do it. When I get back, I can command the basilisk to remain down in the chamber, no matter what other orders it might receive to the contrary."

"Can you get me in to see Hermione?" Beth suddenly asked, causing both men to turn to look at her in surprise. "I know we can't do it openly, but could you smuggle me into the school. I need to see my daughter and check she's okay."

"I'm sure I can do something," Severus promised his step-mother. "But before I go, we need to discuss using the kids the way we've being doing. They're still only children and just learning their magic, I think we've been taking their abilities for granted. We shouldn't be getting them involved in this stuff so early."

"I agree," Voldemort said with a nod of his head. "Sometimes it's easy to forget they're still so young, they always seem so mature. Next year, they won't be doing anything dangerous, you have my word on it."

"Good," Severus said as he got to his feet. "I better get back before anyone misses me. I'll keep you both up to date about Hermione, and I'll try to think of a way to sneak you into the castle to see Hermione. Or I'll try and think of a way that you can see her at least."

Getting to her feet, Beth gave her step-son a hug. "Thank you Severus."

Saying his goodbyes, Severus left his father to sort things with Lucius while he went to take care of the basilisk. Hopefully his order would be enough to ensure there were no more attacks. Of course, he still wanted to find out who had the diary and had let the basilisk out to petrify Hermione, but that would have to wait for another day.


	13. Chapter 13

Being stuck up in Gryffindor Tower wasn't at all to Harry's liking. He was desperate for news about Hermione, and he wanted nothing more than to talk to his father and Draco. Something had clearly gone majorly wrong with their plans, and he wanted to know if his father and best friend had any more idea of what had happened than he had. All he could guess was whoever stole the diary, was behind opening the chamber. But he couldn't figure out how having the diary would give them the ability to open the chamber. However, it was the only solution he could think of as he hadn't opened the chamber and he would bet anything that neither had Hermione and Draco.

Luckily for Harry, the lockdown didn't last as long as he'd been expecting. In total they were stuck up in Gryffindor Tower for only one day following Hermione's attack. Since Hermione's attack happened on the last day of the holidays, it meant that classes were only one day later in being restarted.

On the morning they were released from curfew, Harry and Ron made their way down to breakfast with the other Gryffindors. McGonagall had arrived to escort the students down to the Great Hall, so they were guessing the supervision in-between lessons by Professors was back. As they headed down to breakfast, Harry managed to ask McGonagall about Hermione and when they could see her next. However, McGonagall had said since there was nothing they could do for Hermione, there wouldn't be much point visiting her. The only bright side was that she told him that the antidote should be ready within the month.

"What did she say?" Ron asked as they settled at the Gryffindor table. "When can we see Hermione?"

"We can't," Harry replied bitterly. "McGonagall reckons there's no point in visiting her since she's unresponsive."

"That's not fair," Ron protested. "For all they know Hermione can hear everything, and she'll think we've abandoned her."

"We can always try sneaking up to the hospital wing later on," Harry suggested.

He'd been surprised by how affected Ron was with what had happened to Hermione as he'd been under the impression that Ron wasn't overly fond of Hermione. Maybe she was growing on him, or maybe Ron just liked to give the impression that he wasn't fussed on Hermione. Either way, Harry now knew Hermione meant more to Ron than he'd ever thought possible.

Thinking of the other people who loved Hermione, Harry turned his attention to his father and best friend. Severus was sitting at the Professors table with his usual indifferent expression, but Harry could see the concern in his eyes and the tension in his body. It was similar situation with Draco over at the Slytherin table. To most people he would look as though he was his usual stoic self, but to Harry he could see the tension and worry oozing from the blond. He just wished he could talk to them both and try and get a better idea of what was happening.

Ten minutes later, Harry's attention was diverted from his father and friend as the doors to the Great Hall suddenly burst open. A short, plump wizard strode into the room with an imperious looking Lucius Malfoy right behind him. Harry recognised the wizard with Lucius as Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic.

"Cornelius, I wasn't expecting you," Dumbledore said as he rose from his seat and began to make his way down the hall to the Minister. "Have I missed an owl?"

"No," Fudge replied. He snapped his fingers and two more burly wizards entered the Great Hall. "I'm afraid, we're not here for a friendly chat Albus. We're here to make an arrest."

"Can we at least get the students out of the Great Hall," Albus said.

"Don't you think they deserve to know who's endangered their lives?" Lucius questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"This will be easier if we just get on with it," Fudge said. "Let us do our job, Albus and we'll be out of your hair. I'm sure you're aware of who we want to talk to."

"I have an idea, but I can assure you that he's innocent," Dumbledore replied.

"We'll be the judge of that," Fudge said, before turning to the two burly wizard behind him. "Boys, arrest him."

Everyone in the Great Hall watched in silence as the two wizards strode down the hall towards the Professors table. All eyes were on them as they situated themselves on either side of Hagrid. Hagrid looked at the two wizards, before turning pleadingly to Dumbledore.

"I'm sorry, Rubeus," Dumbledore said resignedly. "Go with them, and I'll promise to do everything I can for you."

Slowly Hagrid got to his feet and allowed the two wizards to escort him from the Great Hall. His departure prompted people to start whispering amongst themselves. A few people shouted out protests, and exclaimed Hagrid's innocence. While Ron and the twins were amongst those protesting Hagrid's innocence, Harry was too stunned to say or do anything. Even though he knew they'd planned on putting the blame on Hagrid, he hadn't expected to witness his arrest. Nor had he expected it to happen in front of the entire school.

"If that's all Cornelius, I have a school to run," Dumbledore said frostily.

"Actually you don't," Lucius said, pulling a piece of parchment out of his robes with a smirk. "This is a letter of suspension from the school governors. Given what's been happening this year, we don't have faith in your running of the school. A final decision on your position will be made by the end of the year."

"You can't do this," Ron yelled, jumping to his feet. "You can't suspend Dumbledore."

"Yeah, with him gone there'll be attacks daily," Fred added loudly.

Slowly more students added their protests, until the Great Hall was awash with noise. Listening to the noise, Harry began to realise that not all the shouts were in support of Dumbledore. Obviously the Slytherins were cheering on Lucius's actions, but they had a decent amount of support among the other houses.

"Enough!" Dumbledore called, bringing the room into line. "I appreciate your support, but the governors have made their decision. Professor McGonagall will take charge."

More protests and cheers erupted as Dumbledore turned and headed out of the Great Hall alongside Fudge and Lucius. As the noise continued to rise, Professor McGonagall pulled out her wand and let off a loud bang. The noise was enough to shock the students into silence.

"I appreciate we've all had a shock, but there's no excuse for such noise," McGonagall scolded. "I am going to extend breakfast for another hour. The head students will take charge, alongside the prefects, while the staff step out for a while. However, we will be nearby, so no bad behaviour will be tolerated."

After quickly speaking to the head students, McGonagall led the staff out of the Great Hall. Almost immediately, the room burst into loud chatter as everyone tried to digest the news.

"Can you believe it?" Ron grumbled. "No way Hagrid is guilty. Why would they even think that?"

"They must have some proof," Dean said with a shrug. "Dumbledore knew who they were after before they even said."

"Hagrid would never do anything like this," Ron argued. "Tell them, Harry."

"I'm with Ron," Harry said. "Hagrid wouldn't hurt anyone."

"No offence, but he has to have done something," Seamus replied. "He wouldn't have been arrested with just cause."

"Next you'll be saying that it was right that Dumbledore was suspended," Ron scoffed.

"Maybe it was," Seamus said. "He is in charge, and there has been four people attacked."

"He was doing all he could to stop the attacks," Ron retorted.

"He hasn't done enough, has he?" Dean shot back. "If he had, Hermione would be here. You can't say he's not inept when your own best friend is a victim."

"We can argue about this all day, and it won't get us anywhere," Harry interjected as he sensed Ron was readying himself for a full on battle with Dean and Seamus. "We're kids, it's not like we can do anything. We can't help Hagrid or Dumbledore."

"We might not be able to help, but we can defend their names," Ron said. "I thought you of all people would be supporting Dumbledore and Hagrid."

"I am," Harry reassured Ron. "I just don't think falling out with our friends is the way to do it."

"Harry's right," Dean said with a nod of his head. "Arguing amongst ourselves isn't going to achieve anything."

"I guess you're right," Ron conceded when all his friends turned to look at him expectantly. "I just think the whole thing stinks."

"I think we can all agree with that," Seamus said.

Everyone nodded and the subject was carefully dropped. There was still a tension between the group, but they managed to refrain from arguing for the rest of breakfast. However, the rest of the day was a different story and in practically every lesson Ron had a run-in with someone badmouthing Dumbledore or Hagrid. By then end of the day the redhead had several detentions with various Professors, but no dates were set for the detentions as things were still up in the air following Dumbledore's removal as Headmaster.

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

The day after Hagrid's arrest and Dumbledore's suspension as Headmaster, events were splashed all over the papers. The Daily Prophet was full of the story, with very little other news making it into the paper. With the news all over the papers, there was a battle for the papers at breakfast time, but luckily Harry managed to nab a copy before they all disappeared.

"How bad is it?" Ron asked from beside his friend. "I bet they're making out Hagrid is a monster."

"He doesn't come out of it looking too good," Harry confessed. Not only did the paper mention his arrest, but they brought up the fact he was expelled from Hogwarts when he was teenager.

"What about Dumbledore?" Ron asked.

"The paper makes him seem like an inept old man," Harry answered. "He'll be lucky to hang onto his job if the press continues on like this."

"Parasites," Ron muttered, causing Harry to give him a strange look. "It's what my Dad calls the press when they write trash."

Harry vaguely wondered if Arthur was so scathing about the press when they were writing things he agreed with, or if he just saved his venom for when the article wasn't to his liking. Personally, he figured it was be the latter. No doubt if the press had been backing Dumbledore, Arthur would have been their biggest fans.

"I know why they've arrested Hagrid," Harry announced as he turned the page and quickly read yet another article about the scandal.

"Why?" Ron asked, leaning over to get a better look at the paper.

"Can you remember when Hermione said the chamber had been opened before?"

"Yeah, fifty years ago. She reckoned it was too long ago to be Malfoy's father Although, I've still got my doubts about that. Personally I think Malfoy's up to his neck in this entire thing."

"Well, according to this, Hagrid was the one who opened the chamber," Harry said.

"No way," Ron exploded. "It's lies."

"The article reckons that one of the other students found out what Hagrid was doing and turned him in," Harry said. "Hagrid was expelled, and the only reason he didn't go to prison was Dumbledore. Dumbledore vouched for him and got him a job working with the gamekeeper at the time. Because Hagrid was still a child, the Ministry were happy to accept Dumbledore's word that nothing like that would happen again."

"I don't believe it," Ron replied stubbornly. "Hagrid would never release a beast belonging to Salazar Slytherin. They've made a mistake."

"Everyone was convinced at the time," Harry said. "Well apart from Dumbledore, who stepped in to save Hagrid. Although it does go to show how much influence Dumbledore has on the Ministry."

"How?" Ron questioned with a frown.

"According to this article, a girl died last time the chamber was opened," Harry answered. "If Hagrid was accused of opening the chamber, that means he was also thought to be responsible for the girl's death. To escape serious punishment in those circumstances shows how persuasive Dumbledore was in getting him a second chance."

"A girl died?" Ron asked, his eyes widening in horror.

"Yeah. It says here, she died in a bathroom," Harry said.

"Poor bugger," Ron replied sympathetically. "I wouldn't fancy dying in a bathroom."

"No, nor would I," Harry murmured as his mind worked overtime.

It seemed far too much of a coincidence that the chamber was located in the exact bathroom which was haunted by the ghost of a girl. Hermione had never mentioned much about Myrtle, other than she was always moaning and complaining. However, it didn't take a genius to work out that she was the girl killed by the Basilisk when his grandfather was at school.

As he thought about Myrtle, Harry wondered if she could help him with who had stolen his book. Every time they'd used the bathroom, they'd made sure Myrtle was gone, but he was betting whoever opened the chamber when Hermione was petrified hadn't taken such precautions. Maybe Myrtle could be the key to finding the missing diary, and getting it back before someone dropped him in it and revealed they'd stolen the diary from his bedside table.


	14. Chapter 14

The day after all the articles in the press, Harry finally got the chance to talk to his father and Draco. In Potions, Draco had 'accidentally' bumped into Harry, tipping their ingredients to the floor. Severus had immediately told the pair to stay behind after class to clear up the mess, however the second they were alone he cleared up the mess using magic and filled them in on what was happening.

Severus explained that he'd smuggled Beth into the school the day after Hermione had been attacked so she could see her daughter. He also told him that Lucius had everything in hand with the Ministry and the governors, and unless anything changed, Dumbledore would be losing his job. And finally, he explained how he'd ordered the Basilisk to remain in the chamber, so they didn't have to worry about another attack.

Once Severus had finished filling them in on what was happening, Harry mentioned Myrtle and his theory that she could potentially help him work out who had his diary. Of course, Draco really wanted to help but it was decided that it was too dangerous for him and Harry to be seen together. Harry would have to talk to Myrtle by himself, but he would also have to be careful not to arouse her suspicions that he'd been involved in the earlier incidents with the chamber.

As the conversation was winding down and Draco and Harry were preparing to depart the classroom, there was a loud buzzing sound and McGonagall's voice filled the classroom.

"All students are to return to their dorms, immediately. All staff are report to west corridor on the second floor."

"That's where the chamber's located," Harry gasped as McGonagall's magical announcement ended.

"If you're going to follow me, do not be seen," Severus warned. He knew there was no point ordering Harry and Draco to return to their dorms immediately as they probably wouldn't listen. "And once you know what's going on, go back to your dorms."

Harry and Draco nodded in agreement as Severus swept out of the classroom. Hurrying behind him, they made sure to stay to the shadows as they made their way up to the second floor. Creeping quietly behind Severus, they stopped as he turned the corner and they heard voices. Moving as noiselessly as they could, the pair tiptoed forward and peered around the corner to where the majority of the staff were gathered.

Harry was so busy trying to listen to what McGonagall was saying that he failed to notice the writing on the wall. Draco however, didn't miss the writing and he nudged Harry and pointed him in the right direction. The wall was the same one Hermione had written the message about the chamber on, which for some reason hadn't been removed, and underneath her message was a new one. _Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever._

"Who is the message referring to?" Severus asked with a frown as he wondered how there could be another victim.

"We don't know yet, we need to do a full headcount in each common room," McGonagall replied. "But the school will never survive a student been kidnapped and never found."

"Who says she'll never be found?" Flitwick questioned. "Last night, Gilderoy said he knew where the chamber was located."

"Indeed I do," Lockhart replied with a nod of his head. "I'll go and prepare, and once I know who we're looking for, I'll get right on it."

When McGonagall started issuing orders to the staff, Harry and Draco backed away. Hurrying down a deserted corridor, they paused to discuss things. They both came to the conclusion that whoever was in the chamber had stolen Harry's diary, and considering that person was a girl, Harry had a sneaking suspicion who it was.

"The Weasley girl?" Draco spat when Harry shared his theory. "Why didn't we think of it sooner, it makes perfect sense? She's obsessed with you. She probably thought you were writing about her in the diary."

"Probably," Harry agreed. "But what do we do? McGonagall's right, something like this will get the school shut down. We never wanted that."

"Lockhart is supposed to be saving her," Draco pointed out.

"I wouldn't trust Lockhart to save anything or anyone," Harry scoffed. "I hate to say this, but we might have to rescue Ginny. I think I can get Ron into the girls' bathroom, but I don't want to reveal I can speak Parseltongue."

"I can open the chamber for you," Draco said. "When do you want to do this, tonight?"

Harry thought for a moment, before shaking his head. "No. we need to be sure it's Ginny. If it's someone else we're still going to have to rescue her, but in that case the plans will be different. They won't shut the school tonight, so let's wait and see what happens tomorrow."

"Okay," Draco said. "But for now we better get going. If we stay here much longer we're going to be caught out of our dorms."

Sharing a final goodbye, the two boys headed in opposite directions. Draco slipped back down to the dungeons, while Harry hurried back to Gryffindor Tower. Luckily both boys made it back before their respective head of house showed up to check on the students and see who was missing.

Of course Harry's deductions had been spot on, and Ginny Weasley was flagged up as missing. As Ron's best friend, Harry was allowed to go with the Weasleys as McGonagall took them to her office as she explained what was going on. McGonagall contacted Molly and Arthur so they knew what was going on, and when they arrived at the school they urged their children to go back to Gryffindor Tower. Of course the adults were all convinced that Lockhart was on the case and that Ginny would be found alive and well by morning. What they didn't know was that as McGonagall was reassuring the Weasleys everything was in hand, Lockhart was packing up and doing a midnight flit.

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

By morning, the entire school was aware of who was missing and where she was rumoured to be. Everyone also seemed to know that Professor Lockhart had done a runner. Instead of keeping the students in their common rooms, McGonagall had allowed them down to breakfast, although classes were cancelled for the foreseeable future. However, the Weasleys were all in McGonagall's office, discussing the fact that Lockhart had vanished and they had no idea where Ginny was.

Taking advantage of the fact he was without Ron by his side, Harry 'accidentally' bumped into Draco as they entered the Great Hall and slipped him a note. Draco acknowledged the note with a subtle nod of his head as he snapped at Harry to watch where he was going.

"Damn Gryffindors," Theo spat as the Slytherins sat down to eat. "They're the ones to blame here."

"How do you work that one out?" Blaise asked with a laugh. "The chamber was created by Salazar Slytherin, not Godric Gryffindor."

"Yeah but it's a bloody Gryffindor who's gone and gotten herself dragged into the chamber," Theo argued. "Because of the Weasley girl, the school will probably end up getting shut down."

"I thought you were liking the havoc this was causing," Draco said.

"I was," Theo replied. "I just don't want the school to shut down. If Hogwarts closes, we'll be off to other schools, likely Durmstrang."

"My Father debated sending me to Durmstrang," Draco said. Lucius had actually suggested that Draco, Hermione and Harry all attend the Wizarding School known for practising Dark Arts, but it was decided it would raise suspicions if Harry didn't turn up at Hogwarts. "He liked the fact they taught actual Dark Arts rather than pathetic Defence."

"That might be a plus, but the cold would be a negative," Theo said. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to attend a school in the cold. I heard the entire school is situated on a glacier."

"As if," Blaise snorted. "It might be cold, but it won't be located on a glacier."

While Theo and Blaise argued over the exact location of Durmstrang, Draco quickly grabbed some breakfast as he slyly read the note from Harry. Harry wanted to meet him outside of Myrtle's bathroom as soon as he could get away. As he ate, Draco spotted Harry leaving the Great Hall so he shovelled his food down a bit quicker.

"I'm off to the library," Draco announced as he stood up.

"Why?" Theo questioned. "We'll be home by the end of the week."

"I don't just go to the library to do school work," Draco said. "I do read other books. Besides, it'll be quiet in there. Everyone else will be outside or in the dorms. I'll catch you in a few hours, but for now I'm going to go and enjoy the quiet."

"Fine, come back when you're not being so boring," Blaise retorted, pulling a face at Draco.

Laughing at his friend, Draco exited the Great Hall and snuck up to the second floor. He found Harry hidden in one of the alcoves just outside of the bathroom, holding onto the incense burner.

"Change of plans," Harry announced. "I'm not leading Ron here, we're going to go and rescue Ginny. Obviously, you can't take any credit, but we can go down and get her and stop the school from getting shut."

"I think she might say something about me being present," Draco argued.

"If she's conscious we can stun her or something," Harry replied with a shrug.

Not wanting to pass up on the opportunity to play the hero, even if he wouldn't be credited with any of the glory, Draco agreed with Harry's plan and they used their usual routine to sneak into the girls bathroom. Once inside the bathroom, Draco locked the door while Harry opened up the chamber.

"How do we get down?" Draco asked as he joined Harry in peering down into the darkness.

"I think the walls are sloped," Harry replied as he lit his wand and used it to get a better look. "We should be able to slide down."

"And getting back up?" Draco asked.

"Let's work that out when we get to it," Harry replied with a grin.

Before Draco could respond, Harry had sat down on the edge of the chamber opening and dangled his legs down the hole. With a final grin at Draco, Harry slid out of sight, his sounds of laughter being the only indications he was down in the hole.

"Come on, it's easy," Harry shouted back up to Draco once he'd reached the bottom of the slide.

"I'm coming," Draco called back, before he followed Harry down into the chamber.

The pair found themselves in a long, dark tunnel. Lighting their wands, they found one end was blocked by bricks so they headed down the tunnel to the unblocked part. As they walked, they found several snake skins that had been shed, along with tiny animal bones they presumed belonged to rats and other creatures lurking around the bowels of the castle.

"This place is gross," Draco remarked, curling his nose in disgust as he stepped on something that cracked under his feet. "I can't believe I won't get any credit for being down here."

"Maybe we can think of something," Harry suggested, although he couldn't actually think of any way of explaining what Draco was doing down in the chamber with him.

Carrying on the pair walked for another ten minutes, before they reached a round hatch built into the wall. Around the hatch was a snake design so it didn't take them long to work out they could open it using Parseltongue. With the hatch open, they crawled through and continued on their journey.

The tunnel past the hatch was completely different, and lining the walls were marble carvings of a man with a snake coming from his mouth. Clearly the man was Salazar Slytherin, and they were in the main body of the chamber. Since they were in the main part of the chamber, they were both very wary of the Basilisk and they kept listening for any sign it was nearby.

After a few minutes, the tunnel they were travelling in gave way to a large room. The back of the room consisted of a body of water, with fresh water flowing down from the mouth of yet another carving of Salazar Slytherin. Lying beside the water was the unmoving body of Ginny Weasley, and standing near to her was a youthful looking boy with black hair and piercing eyes.

"Grandpa," Harry gasped, amazed by the resemblance to both himself and Severus. To be honest he was surprised that Dumbledore had never connected Severus to Tom Riddle since his father bore a striking resemblance to his own father.

"Harry," Tom greeted with a smile. "I was hoping to meet you. And who's your friend?"

"Draco Malfoy," Harry answered.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," Draco said, lowering his head to the teenage version of the Dark Lord.

Tom smiled at Draco's show of respect. "Malfoy. Any relation to Abraxas?"

"He's my Grandfather," Draco replied.

"I don't mean to be rude, but how are you here?" Harry asked as he cautiously approached the teenage boy who also happened to be his grandfather.

"I'm a copy of my real self," Tom explained. "The weaker Ginny Weasley gets the stronger I become. When she dies, I'll be real again."

"I'm sorry, but that can't happen," Harry said. "What would happen if there was suddenly two Tom Riddle's in the world. I'm sorry Tom, but I won't let anything happen to my grandfather."

"I had a feeling that might be your view," Tom replied with a chuckle. "And don't worry, I'm not going to fight you on the subject. Just knowing the things I've achieved brought me great joy. I would have been perfectly happy just talking to you, but then suddenly it wasn't you I was talking to."

"Yeah, Ginny stole the diary," Harry explained. "But we didn't know until yesterday it was her who'd stolen it."

"Can I ask why you made her open the chamber?" Draco asked. "Hermione was petrified as a result."

"I know," Tom said with a low snarl. "That was never meant to happen. When Ginny started writing in the diary, it became clear she was weak and I could manipulate her into doing what I wanted. I had her open the chamber as a way of testing how much influence I had over her. I was not at all happy when she then wrote in the diary and mentioned that Hermione was in hospital."

"And now because Ginny is down here, they're talking about closing the school," Harry said. "I'm sorry Tom, but we have to rescue her."

"I know," Tom said with a sad nod of his head. "To save her you have to destroy me. In the pool over there, you'll find some Basilisk fangs. Use one to destroy the diary. It'll break the hold I have over Ginny."

"What about the Basilisk?" Harry asked, wary of venturing to close to somewhere the creature could spring from and destroy him. "Where is she?"

"Sleeping," Tom replied. "Don't worry, she won't disturb you. She'll stay right here, until you next need her. Now destroy the diary, and save Ginny. The diary will be the key to explaining what happened. Ginny won't remember any of this, and she won't remember taking the diary from you. As far as she and everyone else is concerned, she's been opening the chamber all this time."

"Thank you," Harry said as he went to retrieve a Basilisk fang. "And I'm sorry we have to destroy you."

"Don't be," Tom said with a reassuring smile. "I'm merely a remnant of your grandfather's past. I'm happy to go if it means he can carry on with what he's doing. Just make sure you stick to the right side, Harry. Don't let yourself be tempted by the enemy."

As he spoke, Ton looked pointedly down at Ginny and Harry had to laugh at the idea that he could be tempted to betray his entire family for Ginny. He knew where his loyalties lay, and it wasn't with Ginny Weasley or anyone else on the light.

"Don't worry, you can rely on me," Harry vowed, before he took a deep breath and jabbed the fang into the cover of the diary.

Tom let out a painful cry as he began to fade from sight. When Harry faltered, Tom urged him on. Steeling himself to do what needed to be done, Harry dove the fang deeper into the book. As he destroyed the book, ink seeped out of the pages and there was a blinding flash of light emitted from the book when Tom finally disappeared.

"Wow," Draco whispered when it was all over. "What now?"

"We get Ginny back up to the castle, and as we go we come up with an explanation as to why you're down here with me," Harry answered.

Harry tucked the ruined diary into his pocket as he and Draco raised their wands and together levitated a sleeping Ginny into the air. As they made their way back out of the chamber they discussed their options as they tried to decided what to tell people. Of course it would be easy to tell people that Harry had acted alone, but if they could they were keen to give Draco some credit for what had just happened. Besides, it would create major shockwaves in the wizarding world if the youngest Weasley child owed their life to a Malfoy.


	15. Chapter 15

Over the course of the morning the head's office slowly became more and more packed. By the time Ron, Percy and the twins joined their parents, it was clear that Lockhart had ran off. A few of the Professors had searched his office, hoping that Lockhart had left some notes regarding what he knew about the chamber. However, there was nothing to indicate he'd even known where the Chamber of Secrets was located. They were back at square one, with no idea where to find Ginny.

When Molly and Arthur had discovered that Dumbledore had been suspended, they'd been less than impressed and had insisted the former Headmaster be allowed to return and help them try and locate Ginny. Of course, Dumbledore had shown up when he was sent for and shortly after he arrived, Cornelius Fudge appeared to monitor the situation. As head of the governors, Lucius also put in an appearance, although he refused to rescind Dumbledore's suspension, much to the Weasleys displeasure.

Despite not forcing the students to remain in their common rooms, McGonagall arranged for the senior members of staff to regularly check in at the head's office as they ensured there was no major fuss happening in the school. As a result, Flitwick and Sprout had regularly popped their heads in to check how the Weasleys were doing. However, it was mid-morning before Severus made an appearance in the heads office.

When he entered his eyes widened at the sight of Dumbledore sitting behind his desk as though nothing had changed. A glance at Lucius, revealed nothing more as the blond wizard merely shrugged his shoulder and returned to looking out of the window.

"Is everything okay, Severus?" McGonagall asked. "We've got no problems, I hope."

"None," Severus replied. "Although I am wondering why the Weasleys are receiving preferential treatment."

"What do you mean, preferential treatment?" Arthur demanded with a frown. "I see nothing preferential about having our daughter snatched."

"I was just meaning the fact you're at the school," Severus said. "We have four students petrified in the hospital wing, and none of their parents have even been informed of the situation. Does that not strike anyone as unfair?"

"This is a totally different situation, Severus," Dumbledore replied. "I personally made the decision not to inform the parents of the petrified students as I didn't think it would do any good. The antidote will be ready in a few weeks, and they'll be back to normal. However, we have no idea what the situation is with Miss Weasley."

"It's still not right," Severus muttered in disgust. He'd been annoyed enough that the parents of the petrified students hadn't been informed of the situation, even if they were muggles, but the fact the Weasleys were on hand the second something happened to their child just struck him as deeply unfair. Why did their child matter more than the ones lying in the hospital wing?

"Are we having any luck finding the chamber?" Fudge asked, swiftly changing the subject before things got even tenser.

"No," McGonagall replied. "The school's been searched numerous times over the year, and we're still no nearer to finding out where the chamber is located."

A wave of despair flooded the office, but before anyone could say anything the door to the office was flung open and Professor Flitwick came bursting in.

"We've found her," He gasped. "We've found Ginny. She's in the hospital wing."

"Is she okay?" Molly questioned as she jumped to her feet.

"Madam Pomfrey is checking her over," Flitwick replied.

"What happened?" Dumbledore asked. "How was she found?"

"Two students rescued her," Flitwick replied. "They're waiting in the hospital wing. I think you might want to go and talk to them."

Together, the entire group exited the head's office and rushed off to the hospital wing. When they entered the hospital wing, their focus immediately fell to where Ginny was lying on a hospital bed with Madam Pomfrey giving her a check over. For a minute the two boys sitting side by side on nearby chairs went unnoticed, until Severus got his eye on them and subtly nudged Lucius in the side.

"Draco," Lucius exclaimed in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"He's a hero," Madam Pomfrey answered. "Along with Mr Potter, they saved Miss Weasley."

"What the hell?" Ron spat, glaring disbelievingly at Draco. "What's going on Harry?"

"I think that's something we would all like to know," Severus said, hoping that Harry and Draco knew what they were doing and hadn't blown the entire thing.

"All in good time," Dumbledore said, jumping in and taking charge. "First things first. How is Miss Weasley?"

"She's sleeping," Madam Pomfrey replied. "From what Mr Potter tells me she's been under a dark influence for quite some time. But she's physically fine, and just needs to rest after his ordeal."

"You don't mind if we stay here, do you Poppy?" Dumbledore asked. "We can talk and Molly and Arthur can stay close to their daughter."

"As long as you keep your voices down and things remain civilised, I have no problems with you staying here," Madam Pomfrey replied. "If you need anything, I'll be in my office."

While Madam Pomfrey made one final check on Ginny before disappearing into her office, Dumbledore summoned some chairs for everyone and arranged them around Ginny's bedside. Letting the family settle on either side of the unconscious Ginny, everyone else settled in the seats at the bottom of the bed.

"Harry, do you want to tell us what happened?" Dumbledore urged. "How and where did you find Ginny?"

"It was a pure accident," Harry replied. He and Draco had their entire story set out, and he was confident they could pull it off without anyone suspecting they were lying. "This morning at breakfast I was thinking about everything that's been happening this year. When I thought about an article I read a few days ago, I remembered the story of the girl who died last time the chamber was opened. I then remembered Hermione mentioning that the girls' bathroom was haunted by the ghost of a girl. I wasn't sure if they were connected, but I thought if this Myrtle was the same girl who was killed, she might be able to help me with who was opening the chamber, or even where the chamber was located."

"Of course, Myrtle," Dumbledore tutted, annoyed that he'd forgotten all about the ghost of the young girl who'd tragically lost her life. "Although, I wouldn't have thought she could help you. I can remember speaking to her years ago, and she wasn't much help."

"I never got to speak to her," Harry said. "When I went into the bathroom there was no sign of her. That's when I spotted a hole where one of the sinks should be. The chamber's being in the bathroom all along."

"Wasn't the bathroom searched after Miss Weasley went missing?" Fudge demanded, turning to glare at McGonagall.

"The entire school was searched again," McGonagall replied. "Either the chamber wasn't open at the time or whoever searched the bathroom failed to report it."

"Who searched the bathroom?" Lucius asked.

"Gilderoy Lockhart," McGonagall answered. "At least, he was supposed to, but given his actions I can't say we can trust that he did indeed conduct the searches I asked the staff to perform."

"As fascinating as this is, I want to know where Malfoy comes into it," Ron interrupted. "Why was he involved in saving my sister?"

"It wasn't intentional," Draco said with a snort. "I was heading to the library and I spotted Potter skulking around on the second floor. I was curious about what he was doing, and when he went into the girls' bathroom, I followed him."

"Why?" Arthur asked with a frown.

"Potter and his friends are always up to something, and I wanted to see what he was doing," Draco answered with a shrug. "I'm a naturally curious person."

"You're a natural interferer," Ron muttered.

"So what happened when you entered the bathroom?" Dumbledore asked, wanting to brush past Ron's remarks regarding Draco before tensions boiled over.

"I found Potter staring down a black hole in shock," Draco replied. "Before I even had a chance to question him, he jumped down the hole. Naturally, I followed."

"As you do," Percy remarked, looking at Draco as though he was mad.

"Why didn't you just go and get a Professor?" Molly asked. "Why follow him?"

"Instinct," Draco retorted. "It didn't take a genius to work out what the hole was and I couldn't resist going down to have a look."

"And what did you find?" Dumbledore asked. "What can you tell us about the creature?"

"Not much, we never saw it," Harry replied.

"Although judging from some incredibly large snake skins we found discarded, I would say the creature is some sort of serpent," Draco added.

"It makes sense," Dumbledore mused thoughtfully. "Slytherin was known to converse with serpents, and it is the symbol of his house."

"Anyway, we headed down this dark tunnel and climbed through a hatch that led to a large chamber," Harry continued. "Ginny was lying unconscious on the floor, and there was a boy with her. The boy called himself Tom and he reckoned he'd been communicating with Ginny through a diary."

Pausing, Harry pulled out the diary and handed it to Dumbledore. Dumbledore examined the diary, shaking his head when he came across a small embossing on the back of the name T.M. Riddle.

"Voldemort," Dumbledore announced with a sigh. "This was his diary. As I suspected, he opened the chamber back when he was in school and pushed the blame onto poor Hagrid. This time he's used Ginny to do his bidding and we were only too happy to blame Hagrid again."

"Some of us knew he was innocent," Ron said, glaring at the Minister for Magic who was looking pretty sheepish.

"How did you get Ginny out of the chamber?" Molly asked Harry, knowing there was more to his tale.

"I argued with Riddle for a bit, but when he turned his attention to Malfoy, I snuck away and found the diary lying beside Ginny," Harry explained. "I found some fangs lying around on the chamber floor, and I used one to destroy the diary. I was hoping if I broke the diary's hold on Ginny, it would save her life."

"Why didn't Riddle try to stop you?" McGonagall asked.

"He didn't realise what I was doing until it was too late," Harry answered with a small grin. "Malfoy distracted him brilliantly."

"It was a ploy?" Arthur asked in surprise.

Instead of answering, Draco just gave Arthur a secretive smile. He wasn't going to say he'd deliberately helped Harry save Ginny, but at the same time he didn't want it to appear that he'd just been along for the ride. He was hoping to keep an air of mystery surrounding his actions and the reasons behind them.

"How did you get out once Riddle was gone?" Dumbledore asked.

"We worked together to levitate Ginny back to the entrance of the chamber. I couldn't have managed it on my own," Harry answered. "Getting back out of the chamber was a lot tougher, but again we worked together and used magic to dig hand and foot holes in the wall so we could climb out and bring Ginny with us."

"Thank you Harry," Molly gushed, getting up and hugging Harry as he finished his tale. "Thank you for saving my daughter."

When Molly sat back down and made no effort to thank Draco, Lucius loudly cleared his throat. "Aren't you forgetting someone?"

"Thank you, Draco," Arthur added, albeit slightly reluctantly.

"What happens now?" Percy asked.

"Now, I go and ensure Hagrid is released," Fudge answered as he got to his feet. "And Lucius, since the culprit has been identified and there's nothing Albus could have done to prevent these events taking place, I recommend the governors reinstate him immediately."

"Of course Cornelius," Lucius said with a tight smile. "I'll get the official paperwork signed Albus, but it looks like you're free to come back."

"He never should have been forced to leave," Fred muttered.

"Here, here," George added.

"And as for the rest of us, I think we need to find this chamber and make sure it's never opened again," Dumbledore said. "Harry, you can show me exactly where the chamber is. Draco, you can go back to your dorms. And thank you both for your actions today, they won't be forgotten about."

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

By dinner time, the whole school was aware of what had happened with Harry and Draco. They all knew that the pair had saved Ginny from the chamber, although Ron was still sulking about Draco's involvement and he was distinctly unimpressed that Harry hadn't asked him to go to the bathroom with him. Harry had pointed out to Ron that he was with his family, and he hadn't expected to find the chamber, but Ron was still put out by the entire thing. The only thing he was pleased about was that his sister was safe and recuperating in the hospital wing.

Draco's friends had been just as shocked as Ron, but he'd easily made sure they didn't think anything untoward was going on. Draco played it up that he'd been trying to get Harry into trouble and when he realised what was happening, he couldn't resist joining in. After all, if Harry was a hero for rescuing Ginny than so was he and Dumbledore couldn't reward Harry for the act without bestowing the same honour on him. Then there was the fact he'd helped the school remain open, which was a big plus in Theo's eyes. Now they wouldn't have to worry about changing schools.

However, what the entire school didn't know was that when Harry led Dumbledore back to the girls' bathroom the entrance to the chamber was closed. Of course Harry and Draco had closed it when they brought Ginny back up, but Harry acted shocked that the chamber wasn't open. Knowing he couldn't lie about where the entrance was without seeming suspicious, Harry pointed Dumbledore in the right direction. Dumbledore quickly found the sink with the snake etchings on the tap, but no matter how he tried he just couldn't get it to open up. However, he placed numerous spells on the sink and by the time he was finished he was confident no-one would ever be able to open the chamber again. Harry wasn't so sure, and he suspected that if they ever needed to use the chamber again he would be able to access it.

As the school settled down to dinner, Dumbledore stood up and addressed the students and staff. He spoke at length about the trials of the previous year, and how they were now all behind them. He announced the chamber would never again be reopened, before making a further announcement that cheered many people up. The antidote would be ready in just over a week, and they could wake up the students that were petrified.

"Today's events couldn't have come about if not for the actions of certain students," Dumbledore said. "For his act of bravery in rescuing Miss Weasley, I award Harry Potter fifty points."

The Gryffindors all cheered at the points Harry was awarded, while the Slytherins all waited expectantly. When Dumbledore remained silent, McGonagall and Severus, who were sitting on either side of him, stared at him, waiting for him to finish. After almost two minutes of silence, Severus very loudly cleared his throat as he glared daggers at the headmaster.

"And of course, for the same reason, I award Draco Malfoy fifty points," He finally concluded in a quieter voice.

"Go Draco!" Theo yelled at the top of his voice as the Slytherins cheered loudly.

Draco smirked happily at his housemates as he caught Harry's eye and exchanged a quick wink with his friend. It felt good to be a hero, and he had to wonder how people would now treat him when he'd helped save the life of an innocent girl. He might be able to get away with a little bit more now people had seen a different side to him. Maybe now he wouldn't just be thought of as an evil Slytherin, even though that was exactly what he was and proud of it.


	16. Chapter 16

A week and a half after Harry and Draco had rescued Ginny, the antidote for those who had been petrified was ready. Since Dumbledore didn't want friends clogging up the hospital wing, he forbade anyone to even go near the place. As a result, Harry was nervously waiting Hermione's return in the Gryffindor common room. Ron and Ginny were both waiting with him, and Harry wished he was with Draco and not the Weasleys. He really felt for Draco, knowing his friend wouldn't see Hermione until dinner time, and even then he wouldn't be able to talk to her.

"I wonder how much longer she's going to be," Harry muttered as his impatience grew.

"It could be a while," Ron replied.

"Yeah, Madam Pomfrey won't let anyone leave the hospital wing unless she's really sure they're okay," Ginny added. "Take it from someone who knows."

Ginny had been released from the hospital wing a few days after she was admitted. Harry had been worried about what Ginny would remember, but like Tom said, she had no recollection of stealing the book from Harry. When asked about the book, she just said she found it among her school books one day and thinking it was normal notebook she began to write in it. As far as Ginny and everyone else were concerned, she was unwittingly behind the entire thing with the Chamber of Secrets.

"Don't worry Harry, she'll be fine," Ginny said, giving Harry a reassuring smile as she clutched at his arm.

"I'm sure she will. I'm just eager to see her again," Harry replied as he deftly removed his arm from Ginny's grasp.

The downside to saving Ginny's life was that it had made her clingier than ever. She constantly referred to him as her hero and she used any excuse to touch him. In fact the very first day she got out of the hospital wing, she gave him a great big hug right in the middle of the Great Hall as she thanked him for saving her life. Although in an amusing twist, she'd also developed a bit of a crush on Draco. She'd also given him a large hug in the Great Hall, although the Slytherin had promptly shoved her off him, and now Ginny wouldn't hear a word said against her blond saviour. In her eyes, Draco was now just as much of a hero as Harry. Unfortunately most of her attentions were still focused on Harry as she didn't see Draco that much, and when she did the blond had made it clear she was to leave him alone.

Harry's anticipation over seeing Hermione was ended less than ten minutes later when the door to the common room swung open and she entered the room. Instantly Harry was on his feet and ran over to his aunt, sweeping her up in a warm hug.

"I've been so worried about you," He whispered. "I've missed you so much."

"I would say I've missed you too, but to me it's as though no time has passed," Hermione replied. "But I am pleased to be back."

"We've missed you as well," Ron said as he and Ginny made their way over to Hermione. Also with them were Seamus, Dean and Neville, who all greeted Hermione and said how pleased they were to see her again.

Hermione was slightly taken aback by the amount of people welcoming her back, but she was then totally gobsmacked when Ron wrapped his arms around her in a brief hug. When Ron pulled away, his face bright red and his eyes downcast, Hermione looked at Harry for an explanation, but he merely shrugged. He didn't know how to explain Ron's behaviour, as he hadn't known how attached Ron was to Hermione until she'd been petrified.

"Why don't we sit down," Harry suggested. "We've got a lot to tell you, Hermione."

"Is it about the Chamber of Secrets?" Hermione asked as the group made their way over some chairs in the corner. "Dumbledore said it had been sealed and we were safe, but he didn't go into details. Do we know who was behind it?"

"Yes we do," Ginny said quietly. "It was me."

Hermione's mouth dropped open in genuine shock at Ginny's confession. Clearly a lot had happened in the weeks she'd been petrified. Although how Ginny fit into things, she really didn't know.

"It's a long story," Harry said, chuckling at the look of shock on Hermione's face.

"But sit back and we'll tell you everything," Ron promised.

For the next half hour the group filled Hermione in on everything she had missed. Of course, Harry had to stick to the official version of events and Hermione was dying to get the real story. She could put bits and pieces together and figured Ginny had been under the influence of the diary when she opened the chamber which resulted in her being petrified. However, she wasn't quite sure where Draco fit into things. It seemed a bit risky crediting him as helping to save Ginny, but at the same time everyone seemed to have bought it.

"Wow," Hermione said once the entire story had been told. "That is some action I've missed."

"Some action we all missed," Ron muttered darkly.

"I've told you a thousand times Ron, I didn't plan to go into the chamber with Malfoy," Harry said with a sigh. "If I thought for one minute I was going to find the chamber, I would have come and gotten you. I was just hoping for information."

"I know," Ron begrudgingly admitted. "I'm just annoyed that Malfoy was involved. He's been insufferable ever since. Anyone would think he was a real hero the way he's carrying on."

"He is a hero," Ginny said fiercely. "He's my hero. I owe my life to him and Harry, and I won't sit here as you insult him."

"Harry saved you, not Malfoy," Ron argued. "He was just along for the ride. He didn't free you from the diary. I bet if he'd been alone, he would have helped Riddle."

"You can't know that," Ginny shot back. "You can't say what he would have done if he'd been alone. Just like you can't say what Harry would have done if he'd been alone."

"Harry would have saved you," Ron retorted.

"I would have certainly tried," Harry said. "But I'm not sure I would have succeeded. I know you don't like to admit it Ron, but without Malfoy, Ginny wouldn't be here today. I couldn't have saved her on my own."

"Malfoy the hero, who would have thought," Hermione laughed, catching Harry's eye and giving him a look that said they needed to talk. Harry gave her a subtle nod in response, letting her know he understood.

"Enough about Malfoy," Ron grumbled. "We should tell Hermione about the lesson options we have to make by the end of term."

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked with a frown. She knew that third year brought about a change in the schedule and the addition of new classes, but she didn't know anything about any options.

"I have your form," Harry said to Hermione. "It's upstairs in my bag. Basically, we have to pick which subjects we want to add next year."

"I still say it's unfair we have to take more subjects," Seamus grumbled as he dug around in his bag and found the form they had to fill in. "There you go Hermione, take a look."

Thanking Seamus, Hermione took the form from her house mate and looked it over. There were five different classes to pick from, and it was up to the individual how many and which ones they chose to take. Beside each lesson was a brief description of the class, and what sort of abilities would be needed to take it and do well in it.

"I'm taking Care of Magical Creatures and Divination," Ron announced. "Care of Magical Creatures takes place mainly outdoors, and according to the twins Divination is easy."

"I heard muggle studies was pretty simple," Dean said.

"Yeah, especially for those with muggle backgrounds," Ron replied. "But there's no point taking muggle studies unless you plan on working with muggles in some way. Besides, both my best friends were raised by muggles. I have all the expertise I need."

"What do you think Hermione?" Harry asked. "What lessons are you going to be taking?"

"I'll have to think about it," Hermione replied. She'd actually made her decision, but she was hoping to talk it through with Harry and Draco.

"Yeah, there's no rush," Ron said with a grin. "We should be celebrating that Hermione is back with us."

Returning the form back to Seamus, Hermione settled down to spend some time with the Gryffindors. She was eager to talk to Harry alone, but she knew they would get a chance sooner rather than later. But for now, she was happy to just be back in the land of the living.

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

The day after Hermione was released for the hospital wing, she got her first opportunity to spend some time with Draco and Harry in their secret room. Now things were back to normal, Ron found himself with several detentions to serve from his outbursts following Dumbledore's suspicion and Hagrid's arrest. Taking advantage of Ron's absence, Harry and Hermione had headed to the library where Draco was waiting for them.

"It's great to have you back, Hermione," He said, giving his best friend a hug. "Things just haven't been the same without you around."

"I don't know, you seem to be managing fine," Hermione replied with a grin. "After all, the pair of you are heroes."

"Yeah, isn't it great," Draco said with a smirk.

"You didn't think that when Ginny thanked you in the Great Hall," Harry laughed.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Draco grumbled. "You should have seen her, Hermione, she was all over me. And every time she sees me, she smiles at me and waves."

"Welcome to my world," Harry retorted.

Hermione laughed as the two boys began comparing their run-ins with Ginny. Of course Harry had more of them to share, but it would seem that in the few days since she'd been released from the hospital wing she'd managed to pester Draco a fair bit. Although luckily for Draco, he could tell her to get lost without having to worry if he was offending her, whereas Harry had to try and be more subtle in his brush off.

"So have you two made any decisions about next year's lessons?" Draco asked as talk of Ginny was put to one side.

"I'm thinking Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy," Hermione replied. "I see no reason to take Muggle Studies, and Divination is just a waste of space."

"My thoughts exactly," Draco said with a nod. "I've opted for the three you're going to take. What about you, Harry? Are you taking the same lessons as us?"

"I'll definitely be taking Care of Magical Creatures," Harry answered. "But Ron wants me to take Divination with him. I can't really say no without upsetting him."

"You could still take either Ancient Runes or Arithmancy," Hermione pointed out. "You're smart enough to cope with the work, unlike Ron, and you'd than have a lesson without him."

"Yeah, think of all the times you'd have to do homework without him," Draco added with a smirk. "It would be the perfect way to have a few Weasley free hours a week."

"I like that plan," Harry said with a smirk. "And I don't even need to tell Ron until next year. For now, I can let him think I'm only taking the same lessons as him."

Laughing about their plans to have a Ron free lesson the following year, the trio settled back to spend some time together. With Hermione's petrification it had been some time since they'd last spent time together and they were enjoying been back together.

* * *

 **C.** **O.** **T.** **D.**

* * *

Just over a month after the business with the Chamber of Secrets was dealt with and the students were un-petrified, it was time for the end of term feast. After the events of the year, it was relief for both the students and staff to reach the end of the year without a tragic outcome.

As everyone settled down for the feast, Dumbledore got to his feet to give his annual end of year speech. Of course, the majority of his speech dealt with the chamber and everything that had happened. To round off his speech, Dumbledore announced the final standings for the house cup. The decorations had gave the game away, but there was still an almighty cheer from the Slytherins when they were announced as the winners of the house cup.

"And it's all thanks to Draco," Theo crowed as the Slytherins cheered. "His points for saving the Weasley girl won us the cup."

"I don't like to boast, but I did make a significant contribution to our win," Draco said.

"You like nothing more than to boast," Blaise laughed. "You've done little else for the past few weeks. Anyone would think you saved the school from being shut down single handed."

"Unfortunately, I have to give Potter some credit," Draco conceded. "He may have helped a bit."

"Who cares about bloody Potter," Theo scoffed. "You're our hero, Draco. For once, a Slytherin is in the limelight, and I say we celebrate it."

Glancing over at Harry and Hermione, and finding them digging into the feast, Draco turned his attention to his friends. By next year, people would probably have forgotten about his heroics down in the chamber, so he was going to make the most of it while he could. He was going to enjoy one last evening being thought of as a hero, before he returned home for the summer and found out what the plans were for next year. Hopefully Voldemort would have something interesting planned for them, and hopefully like this year he'd be more involved. He couldn't wait to see what their third year at Hogwarts had in store for them.

 **T** **h** **e** **E** **n** **d** **.**

* * *

 **A/N - Thanks for reading part 2 of Children of the Dark. I've already finished year 3 and the first chapter will be published in a couple of weeks. Thanks to all the reviews/favourites/follows, they all mean so much to me.**


	17. sequel notification

**Just a quick note to say Children of the Dark – Year 3 has now been posted.**


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